Acquerello Carnaroli Rice Superfino is one of the best risotto rices we’ve ever encountered - and chefs and tastemakers the world over agree! Thanks to an innovative process of aging, gentle mechanical processing, and re-integration with the rice’s own germ, this is a uniquely rich and healthy white rice. With firm kernels that keep their shape through the cooking process, Acquerello makes a perfectly creamy risotto - just add
dried porcini, asparagus and cheese, gorgonzola and walnuts, or any of your favorite ingredients! Or mix up a delicious insalata di riso with shrimp and zucchini, olives and sundried tomatoes, or any vegetables or sott’oli.
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After harvest, the unrefined grains of Acquerello Carnaroli rice are aged in temperature-controlled silos for one to three years. This aging process improves the consistency of the grains, and allows them to absorb more cooking liquid. As a result, the cooked kernels are large and firm, and with no stickiness to their texture.
During the Acquerello production process, after the rice is aged, it is refined with a minimally invasive whitening process; Acquerello never uses harsh chemical methods, but instead an innovatively mechanical process. Piero Rondolino of Acquerello is the only rice producer who still carries out this process using a machine called the “screw,” invented in 1884 and still considered the gold standard. Unlike more modern, aggressively fast methods, this machine causes the grains to slowly rub against each other - keeping them whole and intact - until they’re polished to a lovely light honey color.
Acquerello is also the only rice that is re-integrated with its own germ. The germ is the reproductive part of the plant, containing most of the plant’s vitamins and minerals; it is what makes brown rice so healthy, and is removed in the process of refining white rice. Acquerello has devised a unique process of adding the germ back to their rice after it has been processed; the result is a product that can be cooked quickly and simply like white rice, with the vital nutritional properties normally found only in brown rice.
