A fabulous risotto to present even at a party: calendula and wild hop shoots risotto.
If you also love ‘foraging’, this is the right time.
One of the most well-known spontaneous spring plants is wild hop shoots, known here in Veneto as bruscandoli. Each region calls them differently: aspargina, luartis, luvertìn, lavertìn, luperi, vidisone, vertìs, urtizon, bertüçi, viticedda, tavarini, vitarve.
The only sure thing is that hop shoots are true spring delicacies. Sometimes they are confused with the more bitter wild asparagus, but the bruscandoli grow along riverbanks or climb other plants along walls in the hills or woods.
If you are interested in wild herbs, I leave you the link to a beautiful book by Annalisa Malerba, Wild Herbs at the Table.
Ugo Foscolo in ‘The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis’ talks about a soup of bruscandoli served at a dinner with a Venetian family, but the dish that does justice to the bruscandolo is the risotto.
Do you know them? Do you gather them? Just a small bunch is enough, no need to plunder, and here’s some idea with hop shoots:
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4 servings
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring
Ingredients
- 280 Carnaroli rice
- 1 shallot
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 800 ml vegetable broth
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 pinch pepper
- 2 bunches wild hop shoots
- 3 calendula flowers
Steps for Calendula and Wild Hop Shoots Risotto
Heat the vegetable broth. Peel and chop the shallot. After washing them well, chop the wild hop shoots into small pieces.
This time I wanted to toast the rice dry, so I used two pans. In one pan I poured my rice and heated it over medium-high heat, stirring it for 3 or 4 minutes until it became translucent.
In another pan, pour a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, the chopped shallot, and fry for a few minutes. Then add the toasted rice, the wild hop shoots, let it flavor, and start pouring in some ladles of boiling broth.
Add more broth only when the previous one is absorbed and continue this way until cooked (cooking times depend on the rice, check the package). For Carnaroli, it usually takes 14 minutes.
Turn off the heat, add the tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, and stir the risotto gently. Finally, just add two drops of lemon juice, a grind of pepper, and the calendula flowers and adjust the taste if necessary. Serve and enjoy your meal.
Tips and Variations
If you have leftover calendula and wild hop shoots risotto, the next day you can turn it into rice balls or sartù, you can also cream it with celeriac, or with just extra virgin olive oil.
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