MEET THE MAKER - THE HOLY GRAIN

On the outskirts of Milan, organic rice farmer Francesco Bossi, 55, is championing one of Lombardy’s most revered products

- JULIA BUCKLEY

Ask Francesco Bossi about his favourite Lombard pasta dish and he almost snorts with laughter. “We’re all about rice,” he says. “Pasta is a tradition that’s been imported.”

Lombardy’s flat plains watered by the Po river give it the kind of microclimate you find in parts of Asia.

“You need lots of water and hot summers — the temperature needs to be above 12C, even at night, otherwise the rice stops growing. The entire country has the right temperatures, but only we have the water,” he says proudly.

Francesco comes from a family of ‘contadini’ (technically ‘peasants’, though the word sparks reverence in Italy) from Milan — Italy’s second-biggest agricultural city, he points out. Despite its industrial heritage and modern expansion, there are still some 40 farms within the city limits. Traditionally, the Bossis were vegetable farmers, but Francesco returned to his Lombardy roots by adding rice, too. Three years ago, he downsized to a 25-acre property in Ronchetto delle Rane, an agricultural village south of the centre.