Risotto is the kind if rice that Italian mostly eat after the Antipasto or Pasta during a meal. Generally a person can choose between Antipasto or Pasta, then follow by Risotto. This tradition of eating rice is very common, especially people from northern part of the country, because Risotto mostly grown in that region.



In fact, the tradition of eating rice of these Italians is very interesting. As the Italians are well known as people in this country eat rice more than any other European people. In average, Italians eat rice approximately 5 kilograms per person per year. But for people who live in northern region, they usually eat rice about 12 kilograms per person per year, mean while people who live in southern region eat only about 2 kilograms per person per year.

However, the tradition of growing rice of Italians even more interesting. Most of countries around the world grow rice for the only reason that for domestic consumption. But the reason for growing Risotto is totally different, because they grow rice in order to improve quality of muddy soil and to get rid of mosquitoes and its breeding area, which are shallow lakes after spring. The water that is the cause of mosquitoes breeding site are from the ice melting from Alp mountain. The species of rice that grow in this region are generally taken from Arabian people who live in north Africa.

At first, the northern Italian people grow rice only for family consumption and the way that they cook the rice also not use complicated methods and they can store cooked rice for later use, especially in fall and winter. They just only warm the preserved rice when they want to eat and the rice give more nutrition than soup. This is the reason why rice has become popular among Italians. However, sometime later, more ingredients have been add to have more variety of cooking styles.

The cooking method of risotto has been developed for more than 300 years. Since the risotto is introduced to the people who are in rich family and it was very popular among them. Later the “Risotto Culture” was introduced to middle class, even low class, then it became popular among Italian very quickly. Start form northern region, then to the central and southern region. Risotto is known as the food that popular for Italians, apart from Pasta.

Today, many of Italian chefs always find variety of cooking Rissoto. Some chefs also try to find new technique to make their cooking style unique in order to attract customers. They try to find new ingredients to add in to their Rissoto recipes, which some of them are rare and expensive such as Porchinee, goose's liver, herbs, seafood and vegetables. Rissoto also has influence to people to change their social value that change. People will order Rossoto instead of pasta, because they will be looked like a high class person. Pasta is known as a fast food dish that has more calories.