Pilaf, Paella, Risotto

Paella, risotto, and the scrumptious rice puddings of Turkey and Spain, some of the world’s best known and favorite rice dishes, all come from the dry rocky shores of the Mediterranean, a region of the world that seems light-years away from the tropical lush-green rice paddies of Asia. But though we may not think of a field of golden rice when we think of the Mediterranean, rice has been grown there for over a thousand years. And even before then, the Greeks knew about red rice from West Africa, and Alexander the Great brought rice back from India, using it for medicinal purposes rather than as a staple food.