Risotto Coi Bruscandoli

Ri-What Co Who?  That’s Italian for Rice with Hop Shoots (Bruscandoli).  My husband and I brew our own beer, so we started growing hops (Fuggle and Hellertau) in the back yard.  Just three short years later, they’ve grown beyond their boxed-in home and have started invading the lawn.  This means lots of pruning since you’re supposed to only have three vines per rhizome to ensure a good harvest.  Once they start shooting up in the spring, they grow quickly – sometimes 3+ inches per day.  Today, I walked out to find that there were shoots already reaching over a foot high, and it was time to thin the hop-herd.  Someone in our homebrew club had mentioned that the young, tender shoots can be used in cooking much like asparagus.  Google to the rumor-rescue, and it’s true!  In fact, it’s a very common Italian dish (specifically around Venice), and those young hop shoots (Bruscandoli) can be found at markets throughout the spring.  I managed to find authentic Italian recipes using Bruscandoli on the website for the Commune di Berra (near Venice).  I printed out the recipe for Risotto coi Bruscandoli and set to translate it.  What follows below is an Americanized version of the recipe with both the original measurements and the (roughly) American equivalent.  It’s pretty easy to make, and don’t worry about having a whole 300 grams of hop shoots – I only had about 125g, and it was plenty!  The recipe calls for a white wine, but I served mine with a delightful hoppy beer – Terrapin’s Rye Pale Ale.

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Risotto coi Bruscandoli Adapted from recipe here	Print
Ingredients:
1.5 cup (300 g) Arborio Rice	4 cup (1 liter) Vegetable Broth
3 cup (300 g) Bruscandoli (Hop Shoots) use only the tender tips, break off hard ends	1/2 cup (50 g) grated parmesan cheese
1 Onion – minced	2 tbsp Olive Oil
4 tbsp (60 g) Butter (unsalted)	Salt/Pepper/Parsley to taste
Instructions:
Chop the onion and Bruscandoli finely Add chopped onion and Bruscandoli to pan with olive oil and sauté for about 10 minutes at medium heat Season with salt and add rice, stirring for 5 minutes Start to pour in broth, about a half cup at a time, stirring frequently, until the liquid is mostly absorbed by the rice before adding the next half cup of broth – mixture should still be wet, and not dry/sticky once the liquid is absorbed Remove from heat, add the remaining butter, cheese, pepper, and parsley to taste and stir together well   Serve with your favorite hoppy beer! Serves about four