For 6 servings:

450 grs rice (Carnaroli or Arborio grade), 300 grs beans, the heart of a Savoy cabbage, 2 carrots,1 celery, 1 onion, 1 leek, 2 ripe tomatoes,1 small fat salami, 100 grs pigskin, 3-4 slices lard, 30 grs butter, 100 ml red wine.

Clean the vegetables; cut the savoy in thin stripes, the carrot in rounds, the leek and celery in slices. Clean the beans and take away skin and seeds to the tomatoes. Put everything in a pot with 2.5 liters cold water, add the pigskin, cleaned and sliced. Cook for 1 and half hour with the pot half-closed, adding salt at the end. Slice or crumble the salami, prepare a stuffing with onion, lard, salami and golden fry with butter. Add the rice, toast lightly for few minutes, pour the red wine; after evaporation, add slowly under stirring the broth and vegetables and the pigskin at the end. Serve very warm, absolutely without cheese.

The greasy taste of the preparation needs a young sparkling red like a Sangue di Giuda dell’Oltrepo or a Bonarda or a Barbera frizzante.

Luccio alla Sancarlone (Pike in white sauce)

For 6 servings:

1 pike of abt. 2 kgs, 1 liter white wine, 100 ml broth, 50 grs butter, 1 onion, half carrot, 1 garlic clove, parsley, salt and pepper.

Clean the pike, scale and discard head and tail, cutting in smaller pieces. Put in a tureen and cover with white wine for two hours. Prepare a stuffing with onion, carrot, parsley and garlic; drain the fish and fry with the stuffing for few minutes. Add gradually, upon evaporation, half of the wine and “finish” with the broth. Cook for 20 minutes, then put the pike pieces on a warm tray. Sieve the sauce, put again on the fire, melt the butter into it and pour on the fish.

The suggested wines are “softer” whites like a Vermentino di Gallura or the Pigato di Albenga or a Vermentino ligure

Pere Martin all’Arneis (Stewed Pears with wine sauce)

For 6 servings:

6 Martin pears, 100 grs sugar, 200 ml white Arneis wine, 3 cloves, 1 piece cinnamon

Wash the pears and put them in a pan keeping them standing nearby. Sprinkle with sugar, pour wine, cloves and cinnamon, cooking very slowly on a very mild fire. Upon cooking, take them out and put in a tray; increase fire and concentrate the remaining sauce until becoming caramelized, pour on the pears.

The caramelized taste will be better matched by a sweet sparkling wine like a Moscato dell’Oltrepò or a
Moscato d’Asti or a Malvasia dei Colli Piacentini.