Risotto Pangratatto

In the days of the Risorgimento, a tattered band of Carbonari on the run from Austrian troops of the Holy Alliance stopped for the evening in the tiny village of Islamenta (just outside of Naples). The rebels, led by a very young Giuseppe Garibaldi, were afraid of being betrayed if they entered the village, so they stealthily approached a tiny house on the edge and asked for a meal and a place to sleep. The family that lived there was very poor, but they were patriots and burned with a fierce hatred of their oppressors. Though the mother of the family had some pasta, she had only a tiny wedge of Parmesan cheese to top it with. So, to season the pasta she combined anchovies, chiles, lemon, and some stale bread to make a crunchy, delicious "pangratatto" for the hungry rebels, who thanked her profusely. The rest of the story, after the jump... Actually, this Bufordesque saga of the humble origins of an Italian specialty is a total lie. I came across this recipe in Cook with Jamie. Oliver just described it as "a recipe that can be made very cheaply, but when you're eating it you'd never believe that was the case." That's what the Guerrilla Gourmet is all about, but I felt had to make up my own story to distract from the fact that it's really just (delicious) fried bread. Risotto Pangratatto What's Guerrilla: This dish uses small amounts of very flavorful ingredients to create a satisfying meal out of almost nothing. What's Gourmet: The bold flavor and texture of the crunchy pangratatto makes a lovely contrast to the smooth, creamy rice of the risotto. Ingredients: "Plain" risotto. Six anchovy fillets Zest of a lemon. Four little, dry, red chiles. Four cloves garlic, peeled. A chunk of stale bread the size of your fist. Method: If you have a blender**, roughly cube your bread, chuck it in with everything else, and blend until you have breadcrumbs. Then fry it all in a bit of olive oil until crispy and fragrant. Let drain on a paper towel, then toss a big handful on your risotto. Garnish with a wedge of lemon and a bit of chopped parsley to keep things from looking too grim. **If you don't (we don't) cube your bread as small and dice up all your other ingredients. Fry the bread in olive oil until it just starts to brown, then add the other ingredients and keep going until everything is crisp and fragrant. (When I made this last night, I mashed the bread into uneven crumbs, added everything to the pan at once, and ended up burning the smaller pieces. Adding the anchovy stuff later in the game ensures that it doesn't burn before the larger chunks of bread finish browning.)