Nature, company, charity. And obviously so much rice! On May 28th, the Riserva San Massimo opened its doors to visitors for the annual cherry harvest.
The annual cherry harvesting has become an established tradition, an opportunity to visit the enchanting natural park of the San Massimo Reserve, which extends over 600 hectares inside the Ticino Valley, in Groppello Cairoli, in the province of Pavia. Walking in the woods of San Massimo, you can immerse yourself completely in nature and, if you are in silence, sometimes you have the good fortune to see fallow deer and roe deer among the secular plants.
The numerous resurgences that you meet along the way are sources of pure water to irrigate the rice fields in a natural way: here the Carnaroli grows tall and luxuriant, the flagship of the farm. Large grains, carefully selected and rich in amylose, make Carnaroli Riserva San Massimo one of the ricottos most appreciated by chefs: a dozen or so chefs from all over Italy have created ad hoc recipes to make the best use of rice on this day of celebration. Diego Rossi, from the Ristorante Trippa in Milan, has proposed a risotto with lemon and hazelnuts, creamed with Piedmont butter from Fattorie Fiandino, obtained after 72 hours of resting of the cream, soft and fragrant. Still from Milan, Federico Sisti dell' Antica Osteria il Ronchettino proposes a risotto with nettles and Lou Sande toma with vegetable rennet, minced with butter and Gran Kinara, while Viviana Varese, from Ristorante Alice, prepares her risotto with cacio with 7 pepper powder and fermented lemon.
Cesare Battisti and Luca De Santi from the Ratanà Restaurant in Milan propose a spectacular risotto with peas, aromatic herbs from the San Massimo Reserve and fresh butter. Antonio Danise of Restaurant Villa Necchi di Gambolò prepares a risotto with a selection of Colombano di Pietrasanta, lemon and sage and the Manteca with Tex Ranch butter, while Carlo Molon of Sheraton Lake Como combines toast them (wild hops) and egg yolk mimosa. The freelance chefs Matteo Mingardi and Fulvio Verducci prepare a risotto with saffron mantecato al Gran Kinara and Davide Berlenghini takes advantage of the rich harvest of cherries and prepares a risotto together with lard of colonnata and extravarious vinegar Bonini di Modena.
The rice also becomes dessert with Massimiliano Scotti, from the Gelateria Vero Latte di Vigevano: only fresh and high quality ingredients for its ice cream, which is prepared with milk milked during the day by Tex Ranch's alpine brown cows, added to Rosa Marchetti rice and millefiori honey produced in the Riserva San Massimo.
After the rich lunch, the day ends with a little rest in the shade. Both adults and children exchange proud looks, showing their spoils of cherries, fruit of the collection in exchange for a symbolic offer devolved to the Associazione Prato Onlus of Genoa, which supports those who suffer from psychological and psychiatric problems. Towards evening we greet the immensity of the Riserva San Massimo and return home, with the satisfaction of having spent this Sunday doing something beautiful and good.
