Acquerello, aged Carnaroli rice from Piedmont
Acquerello from the Rondolino family is an aged Carnaroli rice from the Tenuta Colombara in Piedmont. Since 1991, the family has grown only this variety there, lets every harvest age in a cool environment for at least one year, and restores the germ to the polished grain.
Acquerello is aged Carnaroli rice from the Rondolino family in Livorno Ferraris, grown, stored, polished, and packaged on a single estate. Acquerello rice cooks into a creamy risotto where each grain retains its bite, and it is cooked in more than seventy countries.
From inn for travelers to rice estate
The Tenuta Colombara is located in Livorno Ferraris, in the vast rice plain between Vercelli and Turin, and its history stretches back more than six hundred years. Around the year 1400, it served as an inn for travelers, and it was around the same time that rice was first grown in its fields.
In 1571, the property expanded to include dormitories, a tavern, and workshops, as rice cultivation required many hands. The estate was renovated between 1875 and 1898, and the two towers at the farm's entrance date back to this period.
In 1920, a sleeping quarters was built for the mondine, the women who used to weed the flooded fields summer after summer. The mondine worked bent over in knee-deep water, coming to the rice plain year after year from many regions of Northern Italy. Today, it houses a small museum of rice culture.
Since 2004, students from the Slow Food University of Gastronomic Sciences have visited the estate every year to get an up-close look at cultivation and processing.
One family and a single variety
Cesare Rondolino took over the Tenuta Colombara in 1935, and in 1971 his son Piero joined the operation, later dedicating the estate entirely to one variety. Until then, as elsewhere in the region, several rice varieties were grown side by side on the estate.
In 1991, Piero Rondolino made a decision that still shapes the estate today. He limited production to a single variety: Carnaroli, which many chefs in Italy call the king of risotto rice. The grain is long and robust; it absorbs plenty of liquid while maintaining its shape.
Carnaroli was bred in Lombardy in 1945 as a cross between Vialone and Lencino. Alongside Arborio and Vialone Nano, it is considered one of the classic varieties for risotto and is regarded as the most reliable among them because it is forgiving even if left in the pot for a minute too long. In the field, however, it is more demanding than many other varieties.
He brought this Carnaroli to market under the name Acquerello. Quality, as Piero Rondolino himself describes it, means a commitment to consistency and coherence. Today, Maria Nava Rondolino as well as Rinaldo, Umberto, and Anna Rondolino also work in the family business, from the field to sales.
Why the rice must first rest
After the harvest, Acquerello rice matures for at least a year in silos where the temperature remains permanently below 15 degrees before it even enters the mill. The unpolished raw rice is stored with its firm husk, which protects it during this time.
During this rest period, the starch in the grain stabilizes. When cooked, the aged rice releases it more slowly; the grains are less likely to fall apart and better absorb broth, butter, and cheese. For a risotto, this means two things: it becomes creamy while remaining distinct, loose, and fluid.
For particularly demanding kitchens, the family stores a portion of the harvest even longer. This reserve ages for seven years before it is polished and packaged, and is also sold in tins.
At the stove, this shows in every classic risotto. The grains are briefly sautéed in butter, deglazed with white wine, and then topped up with hot broth ladle by ladle. Finally, cold butter and grated cheese are added, and the risotto rests for two minutes before being served. Aged Carnaroli makes this process calmer because it leaves more room for error.
The screw, the germ, and the tin
Acquerello is polished in the mill on the estate using a screw-based technique modeled on machines from the nineteenth century. The grains rub against each other and slowly shed their husks; this friction is still considered a particularly gentle way of turning rice white. This ensures the grains remain whole, which is later evident in the pot.
In 2002, the Tenuta Colombara acquired a new rice mill where the family implements its own process. The germ, which separates from the grain during polishing, is collected and added back to the white rice. The process is internationally patented, and at the stove, the rice behaves like traditional white risotto rice.
Packaging takes place directly on the estate in vacuum-sealed tins, which are subsequently filled with nitrogen. Once sealed, the rice keeps for 84 months from the date of packaging. The manufacturer offers the tins in 250 g, 500 g, and 1 kg sizes, as well as larger 2.5 kg packs.
From the rice fields to over seventy countries
The Rondolino family cultivates around 200 hectares of rice fields around the Tenuta Colombara, and only Carnaroli grows in all of them. The water comes from the Dora Baltea, a river from the Aosta Valley, and from April to August, the fields are covered by a shallow layer of water.
During this time, swallows, dragonflies, frogs, and waterfowl live in the basins, and around 160 grains ripen on every ear of rice. In late summer, the fields are drained, the plain turns golden, and the harvest begins.
From here, Acquerello rice goes to more than seventy countries. Among the chefs who use it, Acquerello counts Alain Ducasse and Enrico Bartolini among its users. The estate collaborates with the Harvard Business School and the University of Pollenzo in research and teaching.
With us, you can get the one-year aged Acquerello in a 500 g tin for the family and a 250 g tin for smaller households. For a Risotto alla Milanese, we have saffron threads at the ready, and for the final touch in the pot, a 30-month aged Parmigiano Reggiano. You can find further risotto rice and ready-made risotto mixes in our range, as well as more from the land of the rice fields among our specialties from Italy.
