Risi & Bisi with Prawns from a Cooking Vacation in Italy

Name: Risi & Bisi with Prawns
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 18 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 300 g Freshly shelled peas; 1 Small white onion; 20 Medium prawns; 100 ml Sweet ‘passito’ wine (moscato di Pantelleria); 20 ml Dry white wine; 50 g Raisins; 320 g Vialone Nano rice; 20 g Extravirgin olive oil; 1.5 L of broth made by boiling the peapods

December 11, 2020 | By Peg Kern

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Enjoy this delectable summer recipe of rice, peas, and prawns on one of our cooking vacations in Italy, or try it in your own kitchen! It is a unique take on the traditional “risi e bisi” dish, which is a dish of rice and peas a bit like a risotto. Here it is paired with flavors you might find on our Veneto cooking vacations, namely by combining seafood and the sweetness of raisins such as you find in a traditional Venetian sarde in saor.

See all our cooking vacations in the Veneto.

Of course, it is a dish that is best made int he springtime with fresh, freshly shelled peas. You can use frozen if you can’t find fresh – but the flavor will not be the same.

Risi & Bisi with Prawns

Serves: 4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 18 minutes
Cook method: Simmer

Ingredients:

300 g Freshly shelled peas
1 Small white onion
20 Medium prawns
100 ml Sweet ‘passito’ wine (moscato di Pantelleria)
20 ml Dry white wine
50 g Raisins
320 g Vialone Nano rice
20 g Extravirgin olive oil
1.5 L of broth made by boiling the peapods

Instructions

1. Shell the peas which should be very fresh.

2. Peel the prawns leaving the tail and let them soak in the ‘passito’ wine together with the raisins for 1 hour in the fridge.

3. Heat the oil in a frying pan and brown the thinly sliced onion lightly, add the peas and cook for 1 minute, cover, reduce the heat and cook for 3 minutes.

4. Add the rice and stir to coat it with the oil for a short time, add the white wine and let evaporate on a high heat.

5. Lower the heat and continue to cook adding the broth made by boiling the pods.