Risotto

Nobody has ever been able to establish the exact origins of the rice, however there’s no doubt though that it first appeared in East Asia, India, China and Vietnam. In the low Valley of the river Yang Tze Jiang in China repartees appertaining to the VI millenium bc. were found some that demonstrate the coexistence of different kinds of wild and cultivated rice. Also in the South-East part of Asia similar testimonies were found.

Rice was one of the fundamental elements indispensable for the human alimentation. Especially in Asia the permanent cultivation of this plant determined the way of life and the way of thinking of these populations. There are many legends that often consider the rice as a gift from a supernatural force and all of them try to explain the mystery giving to this cereal numerous meanings as the one of happiness, good health, fecundity and so on.

Only during the Persian empire its diffusion starts to propagate to the West Asia and with the invasion of India by Alexander the Great the Greek came to know rice. Strangely the Greek didn’t contribute to its diffusion even if they introduced it in their cuisine. It was always considered as if it was a spice. It was extremely expensive, used with parsimony and in particular cases utilized as a medicament.

The situation didn’t change at all during the Middle Age. It’s incredible to find out that the rice, already in Southern Italy for centuries was brought to the North of Italy by the Arabs through Spain. Arabs in facts favored the cultivation of rice between the IV b.C. and the X a.D century diffusing it in Egypt, on the Oriental side of Africa until the Madagascar Island, the Iberian peninsula and finally, around the14th century in Italy. Initially the rice was cultivated in the area surrounding Milan evetually spreading into other areas of Northern Italy.