A COMFORTING SUNDAY LUNCH

On Sunday, suffering from a bad cold and in a dismal and rainy Sicily, I was delighted to be invited to lunch by my friends Marco and Giovanna.

To start, Giovanna had prepared riso al forno, which was just what I needed. [You'll find the recipe further down]:

Then there were cotolette di vitello



with polpette di patate and orange salad [not shown]:



For dessert, she had prepared crespelle di riso, flavoured with honey:

And, having felt too poorly to make a cake, I took along a tray of pastries from a local pasticceria:

Don't you like the "coffee cup" one? Even the tiny cup is made of chocolate:

Giovanna's recipe for Riso al forno
To serve 6 people generously, boil 1 kg rice until just al dente and drain it. Make a ragù using 1 kg minced veal or beef, olive oil, onion and celery. Fry the ingredients till browned and then add a little wine and let it evaporate. Add the contents of 2 bottles of passata and 250 gr grated grana padano or caciovavallo cheese. Season and mix well. Spread some ragù in a baking dish and spread half the rice on top. Then add some ricotta, mozzarella, salame and a little béchamel or, as Giovanna puts it, "egg, peas, whatever you have". Repeat the layers, finishing with a layer of rice. Cook for 30 mins at 200 C.

Buon appetito!