Milk and rice soup
When I was a young girl, I spent summers on my Grandmother’s
Farm in New Jersey. It was a working farm and also a Pensione.
My Grandmother traded produce with the neighboring farm
for fresh milk and butter from their cows. It was a pleasant
hike along a dirt road adjacent to the railroad tracks and then
a short walk across the grassy field where the cows grazed to the farm house. I was often given the pleasure to milk a cow which is easy once you get the rhythm.
It was pure joy. I had a favorite cow with a sweet face
and I called her Daisy. If it wasn’t milking time when we got there, I would never
leave without giving her a hug because I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.
That’s what a 5 to 9 year old city girl does! Around the time I was
10 or 11 that farm got a little more automated so my milking years were over.
This is a soup I recall that was made at lunchtime.
8 CUPS MILK – preferably whole | 1 CUP ABORIO RICE |
1 TB BUTTER | SALT TO TASTE |
Pour the milk into a large soup pot and bring slowly to a boil over medium heat.
Add the rice slowly, stirring as you add and simmer for about 15 minutes, checking often as you want the rice to be al dente and not mushy, so be careful to not overcook.
Add the butter and season with salt, if needed, and serve immediately.
NOTE: this is such a simple dish but so satisfying. I seem to recall that a few times when we were visiting during the colder months my Grandmother would make this for my brother and me
for breakfast, substituting sugar for the salt or maybe leaving the salt as the rice would then be bland and still adding the sugar and an extra pat of the farmer’s wife’s home churned sweet butter. This was a great breakfast for a city girl.
BUON MANGIATA!
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