madebyjade

What!? Risotto! Don’t even think about it – it’s too tricky. – FALSE!

Risotto requires sweat and will leave you in a sloppy mess and tears. – FALSE!

It has been lifted from its dark, no-go pit and revolutionized into a staple food. – TRUE!

I promise you this dish takes only 30 minutes to make – take another dish and you will see it also takes up the same time, or even more – TRUE!

It can be served on its own, with other ingredients or as an accompaniment to lamb shanks, for example. –TRUE!

Now be true to yourself – please try and see it will leave tears, but those of joy and surprise!

For 4 people you need:

80g cold salted butter, diced into small cubes of roughly 2cmx2cm

1 small onion, or ½ a big onion

80g or one big handful Arborio rice

1.2 – 1.5 liters light homemade chicken or vegetable stock*, 2 stock cubes and water

1 cup (250ml) white wine

100g (one cup or big handful) Parmesan or Grana Padano cheese, finely grated

50g (1/2 cup or small handful) mozzarella, finely grated (optional)

And… action:

Place the stock in a small saucepan, one with a lid if you have one. Turn on the heat and let it come to the boil, then turn it down to a lower heat, so that it simmers (only bubble softly); keep it simmering while you prepare the other ingredients. If you place a lid on top, it will heat up faster and keep the liquid from evaporating quickly too. Dice the onion into small cubes; try to make them even in size, so that they cook evenly. Take a deep, wide pan with a solid base, non-stick or other, with a lid. Melt half the butter in the pan over a medium heat, then turn down the heat when it has melted to a low heat and add the onion. Let it sweat slowly with the lid on, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon every 1 minute or so, until it becomes translucent, about 5 minutes. Shake the pan to spread the onion evenly after you have stirred it a bit. Do not let it brown – if it happens, turn the heat down.
Taste the onion, if it is meltingly soft, then turn the heat up and add the rice, and stir by turning it over to coat the grains with butter, about 2 minutes. It should be glassy and transparent on the outside of the grain, and still visibly white on the inside. This is called tostatura (roasting), but again the rice should not stick and burn.
Next add the wine, smell the alcohol, hear the tsss sound it makes, then let the alcohol evaporate completely. Otherwise you will taste it in your finished dish. Take a soup ladle and add the stock a ladle or 1 cup at first. The stock must be warm, otherwise the rice will “grow horns” – the outsides of the grains will harden. Lightly massage the rice from now on with your wooden spoon by stirring it only when needed to loosen up at the bottom, in a figure of eight. Make sure you get the sides of the pan. The liquid should be absorbed until the stage where you pull your spoon through the middle and a small “Sea of Galileo”, in other words you can see the pan for a few seconds before the rice spreads over it again. It should not be completely soupy, or stiff on the other hand.
Repeat this procedure until you think the rice is ready, after about 15 minutes from the first time you added stock you should not add any more stock, because in 3 minutes it should be ready. Start checking by tasting at 12 minutes into the cooking time. The rice should taste creamy but al dente, firm to the bite and not entirely soft. Keep an eye on it the whole time while cooking, that is the only special care it requires. Take it off the heat. The risotto should still be moist. While it rests (for about 30 seconds), it will absorb more liquid, so make sure it has enough to hold it’s shape but not be a stodgy mess. Now add the enrichment of the remaining butter and cheeses, and turn over to mix. Do not add any salt or pepper at first, the stock is quite salty after it has reduced and the Parmesan quite peppery, but do check the seasoning and modify to your taste. Serve this with extra Parmesan in a bowl offered separately. Do not wait to eat it! What do you think now?

*Although you can use sotck cubes or granules, your own homemade stock has your own stamp on it and also adds an unimaginable flavour to the risotto, which cubes will not deliver. It is so easy to make stock and it can be frozen in batches for 3 months to use when needed, or stored in the refrigerator, where it will last a week. If you are lucky you can buy stock fresh at your local deli, like Giovanni’s in Green Point for example. Woolworths and Melissa’s also stock stock (hehe) occasionally.

There are lots of variations of this classic dish:

Risotto Milanese – with the addition saffron and bone marrow

Mushroom Risotto – with mushrooms of course! You can make it even more interesting by adding different types of mushrooms. Clean and slice 2 handfuls mushrooms, fry then gently in a pan for 2 minutes in 50g butter. Add 12 minutes into the cooking time of your risotto. Add some flat-leaved Italian parsley, chopped, at the end of the cooking time, together with the juice of one lemon and the other ingredients.

Seafood Risotto – a southern Italian dish

Risotto Nero – with cuttlefish ink

Red Risotto – an own invention that has my sister, Olivia, begging for more!