Risotto is perhaps the most common dish of Northern Italy. Arborio rice, named for the Po river town that achieved fame by growing it, is the rice of choice to make risotto. This creamy, savory rice dish is ideally suited to seasonal cooking, because it can incorporate everything from the first tiny peas of spring to the ripe tomatoes of hot summer to porcini mushrooms in the fall to small dices of winter squash - all with excellent results.