Po Delta rice IGP

The use of rice for food has ancient origins: recent studies suggest that it was domesticated between 8,200 and 13,500 years ago in China. It arrived in the Mediterranean basin via the Arabs, probably shortly after 1000 AD. The first document attesting to its cultivation dates back to 1475, when Galeazzo Maria Sforza promised to send twelve sacks of rice to the Duke of Ferrara, but rice was already known as a spice for therapeutic purposes. Cultivation in the area began around 1500, with exceptional results. The most common varieties are Carnaroli, Arborio, Baldo and Volano, to which Venere Nero has recently been added. They are mainly grown in the areas of Jolanda, Massa Fiscaglia, Berra and Codigoro. Rice, from which flour is also produced, is the basis of many sweet and savoury dishes, among which risottos with other typical products certainly stand out, such as pumpkin, frog, eel, asparagus or radicchio.