Cook this: Green barley 'risotto' with peas and asparagus from Claudia Roden's Mediterranean

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Our cookbook of the week is Claudia Roden’s Mediterranean: Treasured Recipes from a Lifetime of Travel by Claudia Roden. Over the next two days, we’ll feature an interview with the author.

To try another recipe from the book, check out: Stuffed peppers with breadcrumbs, anchovies, olives and capers; and bullinada (Catalan fish soup with mayonnaise).

Barley has a long history in the Mediterranean. One of the world’s first cultivated crops, Egyptians were growing it as far back as 5000 BCE. People in North Africa and the Middle East — as well as in east-central Africa and the Far East — have cultivated it for thousands of years.

Claudia Roden features a range of grain dishes in her latest book, Claudia Roden’s Mediterranean — based on barley, bulgur, couscous, pasta, polenta and rice. “They are born of the land and linked to an old rural way of life,” she writes. “That is why they have powerful nostalgic appeal.”

Giving barley the risotto treatment is common practice in parts of Italy. In the northeastern Friuli Venezia Giulia region (bordering Slovenia and Austria), for example, orzotto is a specialty.

A portmanteau of orzo and risotto, the dish’s name presents some culinary confusion for English speakers.

Orzo, the short-cut semolina pasta, not only resembles a grain of rice or barley — it means barley in Italian. While orzo is widely used to describe the pasta shape in Canada, in Italy, it’s more commonly called risoni. Orzotto, then, is a “risotto” made with barley instead of rice (or orzo, for that matter).

Barley “risotto” is easier to make than the rice version, says Roden, “because you do not need to keep stirring while adding the wine and stock, and there is no risk of overcooking.”

Growing up in Cairo, Egypt, Roden “adored” her Slovene Italian nanny, Maria Koron. With her, they spoke only Italian, Roden recalls, and Koron’s cooking played a role in shaping her tastes.

This barley “risotto” — verdant with spring’s fresh asparagus — was influenced by Koron. “She cooked for us when we were little. She was the one,” says Roden. “And so, the memories of her kind of dishes, for me, are very personal.”

GREEN BARLEY “RISOTTO” WITH PEAS AND ASPARAGUS

1 cup (180 g) pearl barley (see note)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cups (480 mL) water, plus 7 tbsp (100 mL) if needed
3/4 cup (175 mL) dry white wine
2 chicken or vegetable bouillon cubes
Salt and black pepper
3/4 cup (200 g) frozen petite peas
4 to 5 tbsp (60 to 75 mL) crème fraîche
Grated zest of 1/2 lemon, plus 1 lemon, quartered
7 oz (200 g) asparagus tips, trimmed and cut into pieces
Grated Parmesan or Grana Padano for serving

Step 1

Wash the barley in a bowl of cold water and rinse in a sieve under cold running water.

Step 2

Warm the olive oil in a large pan over low heat and fry the onion, stirring often, for 5 to 8 minutes, until it is soft but not coloured.

Step 3

Pour in the 2 cups (480 mL) water and the wine, add the bouillon cubes and bring to a boil. Pour in the barley, cover and simmer over low heat until the grain is tender, seasoning with salt and pepper midway during the cooking. It can take from 30 to 60 minutes, depending on the grain, if it was soaked overnight and on how soft you like it. Add the 7 tbsp (100 mL) water if it is dry. It should be very moist with a little liquid. (If you let it sit, the grain will absorb any remaining liquid and become softer.)

Step 4

Cook the peas in boiling water for 5 minutes, then drain, keeping the cooking water. Using an immersion blender, blend the peas to a rough purée, adding about 5 tbsp (75 mL) of the cooking water.

Step 5

You can do all this in advance. Just before you are ready to serve, reheat the barley, adding a little water if needed. Reheat the pea purée and stir it into the barley with the crème fraîche and lemon zest.

Step 6

While the barley is reheating, poach the asparagus pieces in salted water for 2 minutes, or until they are al dente, then drain. Serve the barley with the asparagus on top. Pass the lemon quarters and the grated cheese.

Serves: 4

Note: The instructions on my package of barley say it takes 45 to 60 minutes, but it only takes about 30 minutes if the grain is soaked overnight. If you do soak it overnight, you will need less water — perhaps 1 2/3 cups (395 mL).

Recipe and image reprinted with permission from Claudia Roden’s Mediterranean: Treasured Recipes from a Lifetime of Travel by Claudia Roden, copyright © 2021. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

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