As far as the inventor is aware, no-one has ever devised a food product of high gastronomic value made on a single slice or in sandwich form, i. e. composed of one or two slices or sheets of a certain foodstuff on which or between which is a layer of accompanying ingredients, in which risotto is used to make the slices or sheets.

In the state of the art in question, the slices or sheets are usually made of bread, focaccia (flatbread) or foods of similar type.

No-one had yet conceived of the possibility of creating a risotto sandwich because. the lack of cohesion of the risotto made it unable to perform the necessary support function for consumption with a filling or topping.

The inventor however remembered that, especially in the past, it was customary to use precooked risotto and brown it in seasoning until the crust that formed on its outer surfaces gave it a firmness and a surface stiffness sufficient to enable the risotto, thus treated, to be handled in the form of a pancake or meatball without it breaking up.

He therefore conceived the possibility of spreading the precooked risotto out in thin sheets and browning them, or at any rate heating them (e. g. with steam) to obtain sheets having sufficient stiffness to act as the abovementioned slices on which a layer of accompanying

ingredients, such as cheese, meat, fish, salad or the like, could be placed.

By making a food product in the abovedescribed manner, it is possible with advantage to bring together the flavours and smells of the risotto of the outer sheet (s), prepared to one of the many available recipes, with an enormous variety of accompanying ingredients to form the layer placed on these sheets.

The term"risotto"as used here means a foodstuff prepared by cooking rice sufficiently to extract the starch contained in it until it forms a film on the surface of the grains of rice so that they stick together in a homogeneous mass of predetermined firmness.

Risottos that can be used can therefore range from plain boiled rice to more elaborate risottos made with wine, spices, broth, butter, etc.

For industrial-scale production of the food product made by the process of the invention, large sheets can of course be made, the product then being cut up prior to storage in order to produce portions of the required dimensions and shape.

It is also possible, especially for industrial-type production, to carry out the process of the invention as far as the preparation of an unusual sandwich composed of the said two sheets, with an intermediate layer of accompanying ingredients, or a single slice on which these accompanying ingredients are placed, and then to freeze the product for storage. The final browning or heating mentioned above can be carried out later by the user prior to consumption of the product.

The subject of the present invention is therefore a process for preparing a food product as described in the accompanying Claim 1.

The invention also relates to the food product prepared by the process of the invention.

A more detailed description of this process will now be given, with reference also to the accompanying figure, which shows a cross section through an illustrative embodiment of a food product prepared by the process in question. The accompanying figure should be considered.

As already anticipated, the process consists essentially in preparing a risotto to one of the very large number of recipes known, cooking it until a film of starch is released by the grains of rice such that the grains stick together to form a homogeneous mass having a desired firmness.

This mass is then spread out with adequate pressure on a flat surface, forming a first sheet 2 of thickness S equal to or slightly greater than that of one grain of rice, i. e. between 1.5 and 4 mm. On this first sheet 2 is then placed a layer 3 of accompanying ingredients, and the underside of the first sheet 2 is then browned in any desired seasoning or at any rate heated sufficiently to give it a crust 5 (shown in the drawing by a thickening of the outer line), which gives it a desired stiffness and firmness. The result is a slice of risotto with a topping and is ideal for snacks and fast food.

A second sheet 4 can however also be added, placing it on top of the said layer 3 of ingredients, as shown in the drawing, in order to produce a sandwich. In this case the outer surface of the second sheet 4 will also be browned or heated until the said crust 5 forms on it also.

The inventor suggests using the process of the invention to prepare food products 1 which, where two sheets are used, have a total thickness (T) of between 5 and 10 mm.

As stated earlier, the food products 1 prepared in this way can be divided by cutting, and also be stored in a freezer, ready for distribution and sale before they are given their final browning or heating. The final operation of browning or heating the outer surface of the sheet 2 or of both sheets 2,4 can be carried out by the purchaser at the time of consumption.

The process of the invention therefore achieves the object set by the inventor, namely that of providing a novel food product that is simple to prepare and whose flavour can be varied in an infinite variety of combinations including the type of risotto used and the accompanying ingredients selected.