Tiella di Riso, Patate e Cozze

Americans do not know that southern Italy has rice dishes. They think risotto, they think the north, they think Lombardy and Piedmont. They do not think of Puglia, where fishermen and farmers combined what the land and sea provided into baked dishes of startling economy.

Tiella is such a dish. The name comes from the terracotta pan in which it bakes. You layer raw rice between thin slices of potato, nestle mussels among the grains, add tomatoes and onion and parsley, and let the oven do the work. As the mussels cook, they open and release their briny liquor into the rice below. The potatoes on top form a golden crust. Nothing is added that does not belong.

This is peasant cooking at its most intelligent. The raw rice absorbs the liquid from the mussels and tomatoes. The potatoes protect the rice from drying out. Each ingredient serves a purpose beyond its own flavor. When Americans heap ingredients into a pot hoping that more will mean better, they should study this dish. What you keep out is as significant as what you put in.