Ingredients
Dice the carrots, celery, cabbage and pork rind. Chop the onion finely and fry gently in a small amount of oil in a deep pan. Add the pork rind and, after five minutes, add the chopped vegetables and beans. Pour in two and a half litres of water and cook for two and a half hours.
Chop another onion, the lardo Italian pork fat and the salam d'la doja salami and fry gently in a large pan for five minutes. Then add the rice, mix and pour in the wine. When the wine has evaporated, add the soup you prepared earlier a little at a time, as well as the vegetables and pork rind. Once the rice is cooked and has the right consistency, add ground pepper, mix and serve immediately.
It would seem that this dish is called Paniscia because it originally used panìco, or foxtail millet, a low-grade grain similar to millet, instead of rice. If this were the case, this typical dish from Novara would be etymologically related to the panigacci or panigazzi of the Tuscan and Ligurian Lunigiana area: pasta disks cooked on flat pans. Salam d'la doja is a traditional Piedmontese cured meat, named after the terracotta containers called doje (pronounced duje) in which they are preserved under lard. If you have trouble finding this ingredient, you can substitute it with a piece of fresh sausage.