How to Make Red Wine Risotto with Beans (Paniscia)

Northern Italians put an unexpected spin on risotto for a satisfying one-pot meal.

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– Today, Bridge is gonna cook something for me that I’ve never eaten before. It’s a dish from northern Italy called Paniscia, and it’s essentially rice and beans, right, Bridget? – It is. Well, it’s more like as if minestrone and risotto had a baby. – Ooh. – Yeah. And that baby was really good. – I’m in. – This is such a fantastic dish. I have to say, this is my new favorite risotto, and I love risotto from all over Italy. This one is really so special because it uses the ingredients from the area, which is the Piedmont region. So we’re gonna start with our base.

So I’ve got two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil heating over medium heat until it’s just shimmering, and it’s just about there. Now, this is laced with a couple of pork products. – That’s why you like it. – Exactly. The first one is pancetta, which is salt cured pork belly.

It’s delicious, a little bit sweet, and it’s gonna render into the oil here, and give its flavor to the dish. And it just really is such a special kind of meat. I love it. So this is about three minutes until we start to see the pancetta look a little crisp. All right.

Mm-mm-mm, lemme show you what we’re working with here. Our pancetta has some nice brown color. – [Julia] Goodness. – Gorgeous. – Sizzling. – It’s sizzling. You got that peppery smell in there too. All right, so our minestrone vegetables are going in. I have one onion that I’ve chopped fine.

I’ve got one carrot, also chopped fine, and a celery rib chopped fine. Now all of these are chopped fine, because we want them really to be indistinguishable from the size of the rice later on. We want all of this to kind of meld together. – [Julia] Makes sense.

– I do wanna season our mixture. I’ve got a half a teaspoon of salt and quarter teaspoon of black pepper. There we go. Season the vegetables. We’re building kind of a minestrone base for our risotto at this point, so I’m gonna let this go, again over medium heat

Until the vegetables are just nice and soft, and that’s gonna take anywhere between five to seven minutes. Come over while we talk salami. – More pork? – More pork, yes. This is a Genoa salami. This is the kind that you find in the fancy cheese department.

Not the deli stuff, but you can use that. This is a nine inch stick. I need about six ounces, so I’m gonna use about two thirds. There, that looks like two thirds, doesn’t it? – [Julia] Yep. – I wanna cut this into quarter inch pieces. So a piece like this,

I would cut lengthwise and then right across. – So it’s basically the same size as the vegetables in the pot? – Yeah, just maybe a little bit bigger. This is one of the stars of the show, so we’re gonna highlight that. So I’m gonna finish cutting this. Keep an eye on those again.

I’d say it probably has about three more minutes left. – [Julia] Okie doke. – These look great. The vegetables are nice and soft. So we’re really gonna crank up some flavor here. I’ve got six cloves of minced garlic. – [Julia] Not a small amount. – No, no.

We’re gonna let this go until it’s fragrant. About 30 seconds or less. Lovely, can smell it. Smelling great. So in goes the star of the show, the risotto. This is Arborio Rice, one and a half cups. And the town of Arborio is actually in Piedmont. – I never knew that.

– So this is rice coming home here. So before I let that go too far, I’m gonna put in our salami. Again, six ounces. There’s a lot of flavor packed in here, but what I’m doing now is I’m making sure to toss the rice in the oil. As you said,

The fat from the salami is going to start to render out too. And we’re looking for the edges of the rice to get a little translucent. That should only take about three minutes, and this is really to ready the rice to accept the liquid that’s coming up. – [Julia] All right.

– It’s been a few minutes here. Let’s check on the rice. Again, we’re looking for some translucency right around the edges. – [Julia] Mm-hm. – All right, you ready for some big flavor? – Yep. – [Bridget] Here’s one of the departures from some of the risotto I’m sure that you’ve had,

And that is tomato paste. – [Julia] Hm. – [Bridget] Two tablespoons of tomato paste. And I’m just going to cook this until the paste has lost some of its raw flavor. That’s just about a minute. All right. – I like the ingredient you have next. – It’s a cup of Hawaiian punch. I’ve got a cup of dry red wine from the Piedmont region. I’m gonna stir this. Ugh. And that wine is going to start to reduce and be absorbed by the rice, and that’s gonna take about three minutes. Oh, look at that. The wine is all absorbed into the rice. I know.

– [Julia] The smell is heavenly. – And that rice is starting to soften. But now we’re gonna use that technique we use a lot with different risottos, and that’s where we front load the recipe with a lot of the liquid. So this is four cups. – [Julia] Nice.

– Four cups of chicken broth. I’m gonna give it a stir here. Now put a lid on it, thank you. – [Julia] Gotcha. – And we’re gonna let this simmer for 10 minutes. And of course the risotto is not gonna be done at that point,

But by front loading all this liquid in here, as you know, it just allows all the rice to absorb liquid evenly, and we don’t have to worry about stirring it constantly. So all it needs at this point is about 10 minutes, and halfway through I’ll go in and give it a stir.

Hey there, fellow fans of cooking. Wanna stay in the know? – [Julia] Visit AmericasTestKitchen.com and sign up for our free Notes from the Test Kitchen email newsletter. – Get exclusive tips, seasonal recipes, product reviews, and more delivered straight to your inbox. – [Julia] Sign up for free at AmericasTestKitchen.com.

– I’m not gonna open the lid, not yet. It still has a couple minutes left to go, but I’m gonna prep the next ingredient to go in, and that is cabbage. – Cabbage? – We’re back to minestrone here. – I did not see that coming. – You did not see that coming, exactly.

This is just going to add a lovely green, crisp counterpoint. So I’m gonna cut this cabbage into half inch pieces. What we’re looking for is four cups of prepped cabbage here, just about half inch pieces. – [Julia] Okie-doke. – Julia, please, if you would, open the lid. You’ve been dying to do it.

– No. – Why, I oughta. – Oh my goodness, Bridget. That smells delicious. – [Bridget] Isn’t it incredible? – [Julia] Oh goodness. – Again, that was 10 minutes. The rice has started to absorb some of that liquid in there, but it’s awfully soupy at this point. We’re not done. So I’m gonna go ahead

And add the four cups of chopped cabbage. So I’m just tossing this cabbage right in there, gently folding it in, and if you could put the lid back on for me. We’re gonna let this go another six, maybe nine minutes until most of that liquid has been absorbed by the rice.

The cabbage is gonna get nice and soft, and we’re not even done yet. Let’s take a look and see what’s going on here. – [Julia] Oh yeah. – That was just six minutes, and you can see the cabbage has softened, and the rice really has absorbed all of that liquid.

You can see the bottom of the pan is just about dry when I scooch away the food. All right, so now another Piedmont region ingredient that they often use is Borlotti beans or cranberry beans. They’re great, and if we were making a minestrone with dried beans, that might be an option for it.

But it’s kind of hard to find canned cranberry beans, so we’re going with pinto beans, which have a similar color. They have a nice creamy texture. This is one 15 ounce can of pinto beans that we’ve rinsed. And so this is the beans, the cabbage, the rice.

And at this point I’m going to add some water in here. There’s tons of flavor in there. – [Julia] Yes, there is. – We don’t need to add any more chicken broth. This is one cup of hot water, just adding at this point to loosen the mixture.

I’m gonna stir it constantly for about three minutes until it’s all nice and creamy. A few minutes of stirring, look at how creamy that’s looking. Ugh, I think we’re done at this point. A few more additions later on, but for now, put a lid on it, please. – [Julia] Okie-doke.

– I’m gonna let this sit for about five minutes. The rice is gonna continue to absorb some of that liquid in there, and it’s just all the flavors are gonna melt together. It’s almost tasting time. Oh, there we go. So a couple of finishes here. One is pretty traditional.

It’s two tablespoons of unsalted butter, and this is a half cup of grated Parmesan. I would use something like Parmigiano-Reggiano, because it’s fancy and we’re special. And this was a departure, the adding the cheese. There’s not a lot of cheese added to this, but we found that that little bit

Just really brought it all together, and my gosh, we’re worth it. All right, so that butter is all melted in there. Doesn’t that look delightful? Now it’s looking at a little thick, so I have a bit more hot water here. You can add up to a cup more of hot water. I’m just gonna add a little bit at a time

Just to loosen up the risotto. All right, this is looking gorgeous, and it will continue to set up. All right, to finish off, a little seasoning. Anytime you have have long cooked things, a little bit of brightness at the end is great. This is two teaspoons of red wine vinegar.

– [Julia] Oh, nice. – Just adding that in to perk things up. All right, now I am going to taste it because I can. – Does it pass? – It passes. All right, so let me dole this out here. – [Julia] I am so excited to try this. I’ve never tasted anything like this before. Risotto with beans and cabbage, two types of pork. – [Bridget] And your favorite ingredient. – [Julia] Mm-hm. – [Bridget] Red wine.

– [Julia] Yep. – [Bridget] All right, one final flourish, Italian parsley. Flat leaf parsley, of course. Just a little bit right over the top. – [Julia] Bridget, I have never been so excited to eat a bowl of risotto in my life. – Keeps coming and coming.

– There are so many layers of flavor. You know, I got the vinegar and the butter. Mm, the pancetta and then the wine, and then the salami. Wow. – But I love the creamy beans with the rice. – Mm-hm. – Beans and rice, perfect anytime. They’re gorgeous here. – Mm, this is delicious.

You’d think it would have an overwhelmingly rich flavor that would really coat your mouth. It doesn’t. The vinegar and the wine really cut right through it. – Yeah, that wine’s a super ingredient. – It is, I agree. With every bite, I’m tasting something different. I love this, Bridget.

– This is warmth in a bowl. – Goodness, Bridget. Thank you for showing me how to make this. This is delicious. – It was great making it with you. – [Julia] If you wanna make this classic Piedmont dish, make a flavorful broth with pancetta, vegetables and salami.

Cook the rice for 10 minutes before adding the beans, and let the dish sit off heat before adding the cheese. From America’s Test Kitchen, a Piedmont classic, Paniscia. You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season along with select episodes and our product reviews at our website, AmericasTestKitchen.com/tv. Mm-mm, mm-mm, mm. – I know. – We hope you enjoyed this video as much as we enjoyed making it. – Don’t forget to hit that like button and subscribe to our channel. – And if you’re ready to take your cooking to the next level, head over to AmericasTestKitchen.com

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