Thursday, August 14, 2008

Insalata di Riso (Rice Salad)


Greetings from the good ol' USA! I'm back and ready to start cooking again. What I should really post is a picture of my reaction when I took my first shopping trip back in a huge American supermarket ... heaven!

This salad is an inspiration I had when we were invited to a cookout on that last trip to Italy. This salad is served cold or at room temperature and is a total shoot at the hip recipe so here are some ideas of what to put into it.

Cooked long grain white rice or arborio rice (I used 1 c. rice boiled in 2 c. lightly salted water)
canned peas
hard boiled eggs, chopped
tuna (packed in olive oil)
cooked hot dog, chopped
semi soft cheese diced
diced black olives
artichoke hearts
capers

All of the above you toss with cooled cooked rice. Toss enough olive oil to coat the rice so it doesn't stick (for 1 c. rice I used 2-3 T. olive oil) then squeeze 1/2 a fresh lemon and toss. Season with salt and pepper. This is typical Italian picnic or BBQ food.

3 comments:

wirrek said...

Yay! (and yay on the salad too) How wierd that you posted at a normal time.

KAJ said...

Are you sure this is good? Tuna, hot dog, capers?...I don't know. I will try it because Italians did so well in other cooking arenas, but I am hesitant...like with the cold soup!

Robin said...

Yep, I know ... sounds weird but it was so good and fresh tasting with the oil and lemon. Season well with salt and pepper to bring out the hint of lemon. We used the tuna and a hot dog but you could use one or the other if you want. My little one loved it.