Over the last months I read so many articles and posts referring to Riso Venere that I decided I had to try and use it for one of my risottos.

Riso Venere, also known as black venus rice, is a wholegrain black rice from Italy, it is very tasty and nutritious, being rich in minerals such as magnesium and selenium, and these properties have made ti very popular in restaurants and on healthy food platforms.

This was my first time cooking with Riso Venere and each step of this recipe was a discovery! I naively wanted to made a quick squid risotto, following my usual recipe, ignoring two important things about this rice:

1. It takes incredibly long to cook, about 35-40minutes
2. It turns everything dark purple, really everything!!

So I started with the usual risotto base of EVOO and onion, toasted the rice and added a couple of ladles of vegetable stock. Shortly after I added the stock to the rice, it started changing colour and turning purple, something very cool but definitely problematic as I was not looking forward to a total purple/black meal. So after a little bit of pondering, I decided to cook the squid separately and add it at the end, instead than with the rice as per my usual risotto recipe, to try and give some of the color and contrast to the dish. Luckily it worked!

Here is the recipe I created step by step

Ingredients

• 240g Riso Venere
• 500g Squid
• 600ml Vegetable stock
• 10 Vine cherry tomatoes for the sauce + 4 for the garnish
• 1/2 cup of white wine
• 1 Clove of garlic
• 3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
• Parsley to garnish
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Method

1. Clean the squid bu removing the tentacles and washing them under running water. Take the body of the squid, clean the inside removing any black skin and cut so to make quid rings

2. Warm up the vegetable stock. I usually make large stock of vegetable stock and freeze it, then I simply worm it up when I need it

3. Put one tbsp of EVOO in a pan and let it warm up a little. Add the rice and let it toast for one minute. Once nicely toasted, start adding the warm vegetable stock slowly. First add a couple of ladles of stock, let it absorb and then add other two. Continue until all the vegetable stock is incorporated and the rice just cooked, al dente.

Season with a bit of salt, but not to much as you will season the dish again before serving it

4. While the rice cook, put two tablespoons of EVOO in a pan with the clove of garlic and let it cook until the garlic is nice and golden brown. Lower the flame, add the vine cherry tomatoes and let it cook until the

5. Add the squid to the cherry tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and let it cook for about five minutes.

6. When cooked, remove the the tentacles and few squid rings from the pan, add four vine cherry tomatoes, mix together with a drizzle of EVOO and set aside to be used as garnish

7. Add the rice to the pan with the squid, pour over the white wine, incorporate everything and let the alcohol evaporate on a high heath. Cook until any residual liquid is fully absorbed and season if required.

8. Plater the rice and top it with the squid tentacles set aside, garnish with some parsley and serve hot.

This recipe was is now one of my favourite risotto to date, it took a bit to make but the result was very delicious!

I hope you like this recipe, let me know if you have any questions or what you think if this recipe by using the comment box below!!

If you want to make this recipe and share it on your social media please tag me using @prepandproperrecipes and using the tag #prepandproperrecipes and #nofoodinthebin