Rice ‘polenta’ with sausage sauce and rice with pork, lemon and saffron: Pasta Grannies’ Sardinian rice recipes

Spoons at the ready for 83-year-old Maria’s rustic risotto with pork and saffron, and Rita’s polenta-style rice with a punchy sauce

If I were to say “Italian rice”, you might well think “risotto” and “the Po Valley”. However, these two recipes come from Sardinia, mainly because I wanted to share a few easy, not-laden-with-rules Italian rice dishes.

Eighty-three-year-old Maria was widowed young and, to make ends meet, set up an agriturismo dining space in her home near Oristano in Sardinia’s rice-growing heartland. This rustic risotto with a wonderful combination of flavours was one of her customers’ favourites, and it’s a great recipe if you are nervous about making a classic risotto with all its rules.

Prep 20 minStock 2 hr+ (optional)Cook 1 hr 20 minServes 4

For the stock (optional)1kg pork bones 1 sun-dried tomato, or ½ tsp tomato puree1 onion, peeled 2 celery sticks 1 carrot