Can I Use Carnaroli Rice For The Rice Pudding Cake?

Our answer

Nigella's Rice Pudding Cake (from COOK, EAT, REPEAT) is made with a base of risotto rice cooked with milk. This rice pudding is then sweetened and mixed with eggs and baked.

Risotto rice is a short-grained, starchy rice. This means that it will thicken the liquid that it is cooked in and can be cooked for a reasonable amount of time without turning mushy. Nigella suggests arborio rice as it is available almost everywhere, either labelled as "arborio rice" or "risotto rice". It is also grown in many countries. Carnaroli is another type of short-grained risotto rice that is grown in the Ticino area in Northern Italy. Carnaroli is considered to be a premium product and is expensive. The rice specifically grown in Baraggia is designated as a DOP/PDO. Hence we don't specify it for the cake. Carnaroli has some slight differences to arborio, in that the grains are slightly larger and it tends to retain a little more "bite" than arborio. However, these should not make a big difference to the cake, so you could use carnaroli if you prefer.