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Rice nutrition
In over 150 years in the business, Riso Gallo has never stopped studying what over half of the world’s population considers the king of cereals due to its amazing nutritional values. This section is devoted to examining information on the relationship between rice and nutrition.
RICE FACT SHEET
| Scientific name | Oryza sativa L. |
| Family | Graminacee |
| Origins | China, 6,000 BC |
| Diffusion | Worldwide |
| Panicle | The inflorescence that contains the grains |
| Caryopsis | The single grain of rice |
| Husk | The hard, rough shell that encloses the grain |
Nutritional values
The fact that it is highly digestible means that it is completely assimilated in sixty to one hundred minutes, much less than the amount of time needed to digest all the other cereal grains.
Protein, vitamins, lipids, mineral salts, calories…
Rice comes in lots of different types…
The quantity and quality of the nutritional content of rice varies according to the variety and the industrial process that the grains undergo.
The nutritional content of brown and parboiled rice is higher than white rice for example.
Brown rice that is not polished, for example, has a higher carbohydrate and protein content but fewer calories which drop down to 100 for every hundred grams of rice. The main advantage of brown rice, however, is its high fibre content which makes it essential to the correct functioning of the intestine.
Parboiled rice, on the other hand, contains more mineral salts and vitamins which are preserved inside the grains of paddy rice when they are parboiled and withstand husking and other forms of processing.
Pre-cleaning and husking: from paddy rice to brown rice
Every year roughly 120,000 tons of paddy (unprocessed rice) are taken to the factory in Robbio Lomellina and transformed into the rice that is served on our tables.
After a first quality check when it reaches the factory, the paddy rice undergoes preliminary, thorough cleaning using cleaning machines and stone separators before it passes through huskers that remove the outer husk.
This process produces brown rice which is then sorted according to size by graders that remove the smaller, immature grains.
From mechanical whitening to optical sorting
The brown rise is ready to be refined or whitened in a physical milling process that gradually removes the outer layers of the grain, husk and bran and leaves only the central part, the “kernel.”
During the refining process, the more fragile grains break to form brokens. Excess brokens are removed by sifting.
The rice that is produced is checked grain by grain by optical sorters that remove any discoloured grains.
Sorting is performed by highly sophisticated machinery with cameras that can identify and remove any grains that are not of standard colour.
Parboiling and other special processes
Parboiling, or partial boiling, is a centuries-old technique that Riso Gallo was the first to use on the Italian market in a continuous cycle.
Parboiled rice is obtained through the completely natural procedure already known to the Hittites and the Egyptians of parboiling.
The untreated rice is first soaked in hot water, then steamed at a high temperature and finally dried with hot air before it is husked using the normal systems used to produce white rice.
During parboiling, the vitamins and mineral salts pass from the pericarp to inside the grain through osmosis and nutrients which are normally lost during normal processing are preserved.
The heat also gelatinises the starch which produces a more resistant grain that can not only be stored for longer, but is easy to prepare, is firmer and less sticky.
The Robbio factory also produces quick cooking rices which rapidly absorb water or stock using a Riso Gallo patented process.
Gran Riserva: The search for a perfect grain of rice
Gran Riserva is the only one of its kind in the world and is the result of six generations of experience. With only a limited amount produced, it undergoes a very strict selection procedure, where only 20% of the paddy rice becomes Gran Riserva.
Gran Riserva is grown where the characteristics of the soil and the microclimate are highly favourable. Careful selection of the seeds and low density sowing guarantee a superior quality product. Through selective harvesting, only the plants in the centre of the rice field (where there is better exposure to the sun and less thermal shock caused by water circulation) are used.
Gran Riserva is matured for a year in ventilated silos before being processed. Here the grains are refined, a process that significantly improves their ability to hold their shape during cooking and increases their cooked volume to well above standard.
The strict selection process produces a large grain rice of uniform size. This means that traditional stone husking can be used in a uniform, highly delicate process that preserves the integrity of the grain and guarantees that it holds its shape during cooking and does not become sticky. This results in a top-quality ricewith virtually no imperfections, with large, plump grains that can be used to prepare excellent risottos. Gran Riserva, highly appreciated by experts and used by great chefs, is the ideal product for special occasion risottos!
The soffritto
Derivata dall’abitudine diffusa in tutto il mondo di sfruttare le proprietà antisettiche della cipolla, la tecnica del soffritto è diventata la prima, indispensabile mossa per garantire al risotto il suo inconfondibile sapore.
La cipolla, tagliata sottilissima, deve colorire lentamente nel burro fuso per almeno dieci minuti a fuoco leggero (“sulla fiamma di una candela” dicevano i vecchi maestri di cucina), mescolando con un cucchiaio di legno e aggiungendo, se necessario, un cucchiaio di acqua per consentirle di non annerire.
Al soffritto possono essere aggiunti altri ingredienti aromatici come il sedano e la carota.
Tostatura
To obtain rice that is perfectly “al dente”, it must be lightly toasted to seal the grains of rice and close the pores.
When the soffritto is ready, turn up the heat, pour the rice into the saucepan and stir continuously using the all-essential wooden spoon. When the rice begins to stick lightly to the pan, add some white wine to give the rice a slight hint of acidity as it evaporates and give the risotto its distinctive flavour.
Cooking
When the wine has evaporated, lower the heat and add the first ladle of stock.
The stock should not be added all at once but, as the maestros of cooking used to say “when the rice needs it,” i.e. when there is not much liquid left in the grains.
Risotto requires a lot of attention: it requires constant stirring so that the starch that is released does not make the grains stick together and it will be your instinct or the precision of the recipe you are following that decides exactly when to add the other ingredients. In the same way, you will be the one to decide when the risotto is cooked regardless of the instructions on the packet. Normally, depending on the variety of rice used, you will need 15 to 20 minutes.
Creaming
Even if the name comes from the Spanish term for butter, “manteca”, this stage indicates the need to add the right amount of fat to the cooked rice that will give it its distinctive shininess, correct flavour and, in the words of the experts, “wave-like” consistency.
In some recipes, Parmesan or other cheeses should be added along with the butter, some require oil and some that have a more exotic flavour perhaps require low fat yoghurt: whatever the case, the covered risotto should be left to rest after adding the necessary fat and stirring it thoroughly.
What rice should you use?
Even if recently more exotic varieties of rice such as black Venus rice have been used to make risotto, great traditional Italian risottos normally use three specific varieties of great white rices.
RISERVA GALLO ARBORIO: derived from the older Vialone variety in circa 1946, the heat gently penetrates its long grains during cooking preserving the right amount of starch inside to remain “al dente” yet giving creaminess, which is needed to make it perfectly smooth.
RISERVA GALLO CARNAROLI: this variety has also been obtained from a series of crosses in 1945 and since then it has quickly become a favourite of Italians who love risotto because of its amazing ability to maintain its shape and flavour, and to blend perfectly with all types of ingredients.
RISERVA GALLO VIALONE NANO: the head of this family of rices which are ideal for making risottos has its gastronomic roots in the Veneto and Mantua areas. Its chunky grains absorb the ingredients perfectly and guarantee an excellent cooking performance.
Equipment
SAUCEPAN FOR RISOTTO:
A deep, wide saucepan is ideal for cooking risotto. If not available, a frying pan can be used which gives it name to the Spanish dish featuring rice: paella. We do not recommend non-stick pans because they are not suitable for toasting the rice. Unfortunately, you will just have to be careful that the grains do not stick to the bottom of the pan. More demanding cooks say that risotto should be made in a copper saucepan.
WOODEN SPOON:
Wooden spoons are often used for cooking because the material they are made of does not have any effect on the temperature of the food they come into contact with (unlike metal spoons, for example). They are ideal for stirring risotto because they do not break the grains and treat them delicately: for this reason, some people use a special wooden spoon with a hole in the centre.