Rice · Rice · Short entry

Riso di Baraggia Biellese e Vercellese PDO

Riso di Baraggia Biellese e Vercellese DOP

Italy's only rice PDO, registered in 2007: rice of named varieties grown in the Baraggia, a cool foothill area of the provinces of Biella and Vercelli irrigated by Alpine water. The producers' consortium credits the climate with smaller, more compact grains that hold well in cooking.

Riso di Baraggia Biellese e Vercellese PDO — representative grain study, polished, not to scale. Appearance alone does not establish variety or protected origin.

The Baraggia

The Baraggia is a foothill area in north-east Piedmont, bounded to the west by the glacial Serra morainic ridge of Ivrea and to the east by the Sesia river. Its soils are clay-rich, compact and poor in humus, and the fields are irrigated by the Sesia, which descends from the Monte Rosa glaciers, by the Cervo and Elvo torrents and by three reservoirs. From April to July temperatures are lower than in the Vercelli, Novara and Pavia plains; the consortium says this gives smaller grains and lower yields but firmer grain tissue.

A pack of the PDO always carries a single variety named on the label. Varieties listed by RisoItaliano for the PDO include Baldo, Sant'Andrea and Balilla. Grain dimensions on this page are estimated from a medium-grain midpoint, as they vary with the variety.

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