This a perfect recipe for the autumn season, when there are the pears.

I chose the Fatulì, because I was recently at home in Italy and we went up to Valle Adamé for a nice walk between the mountains, and as always I love to pick the local artisanal products 🙂

It’s a traditional smoked goat cheese, that it is nowadays still produced by a very few farmers in Valcamonica, and few years ago it became also a Slow Food presidium, so there is hope it can be preserved for the future.

It is made with milk coming exclusively from the Bionda dell’Adamello goat breed, and it is traditionally smoked by using juniper wood. And going to pick it personally up in the mountain, where those goats are freely grazing over 2000m of altitude, it is just priceless 🙂

Obviously also other smoked goat cheese can be used for this recipe.

INGREDIENTS (2 people):

• 150 g rice (Carnaroli or Vialone Nano)
• half of a medium size onion (or a shallot)
• half glass of dry white wine
• 40 g butter
• 80 g of Fatulì cheese
• half pear (a harder type suitable for cooking, like Kaiser or similar types)
• vegetable stock, about 600/700 ml
• some walnuts (optional)
• salt
  

1. If you didn’t prepare it already, prepare also the vegetable stock (carrot, onion, celery, salt etc.).
2. Take a pan and heat about half of butter, then add onion, chopped very small, and cook until soft.
3. Now take a pot and heat it, then add the rice and toast it for few minutes, until the grains have become a bit shiny/transparent. This is the moment to add the white wine, keep the heat higher until the wine has reduced. From now count the time to cook the rice (read it on its package).
4. Then add some ladles of vegetable stock, enough to cover the rice. Keep adding stock when it’s needed. Add also the onion.
5. When it’s missing only 3 minutes for the rice to be ready, add the pear cut into small cubes (remove the peel too). Control also if you need salt.
6. When the rice is ready switch off, add the remaining butter, the grated Fatulì cheese. Wait a couple of minutes covered, then stir and mix well together.
7. Serve it, adding also some walnuts and some thin pear slices for decoration.