On paper risotto is an easy dish that doesn't take a lot of time to prepare, but it's just as easy to get wrong. However, by keeping your eye on the ball with a few simple rules of risotto, you can prepare it to perfection every time.
The widely held belief is that risotto is a rice dish originating in Northern Italy. I, however, strongly contest that notion and think that its history is far more complex. This may make for interesting food for thought, but it's not going to help you cook a good risotto, except perhaps in understanding how the ingredients used in different regional versions differ and how they require slightly different approaches when cooking them.
The rules of risotto - rule one: risotto is a pluralism
Risotto should perhaps be thought of as risotti; not a single dish but a range of rice dishes that can be cooked in different ways, none of which is definitive.
The most widely known versions of risotto tend to be those from Northern Italy, from the regions where most of Italy's short grain rice has been grown for centuries. These usually rely on animal fats for their signature rich creaminess—butter, cheese, lard, beef marrow or any combination of these.
By contrast, the versions from the South or the Adriatic Coast often make use of fish or seafood and use only olive or other vegetable oils. They still have the creaminess characteristic of risotto, but this comes entirely from the starches in the rice varieties used and through the cooking method. This recipe is a good example.
The rules of risotto - rule two: know your rices
Risotto is always made with short grain rice varieties such as Arborio, Baldo, Carnaroli, Maratelli, Padano, Roma or Vialone Nano. Outside Italy, Arborio is probably the most widely available variety and it's certainly a good choice for most risotto dishes. Though, for me, Carnaroli wins hands down every time.
Dishes similar to risotto are also created with Venere Nero. However, this black long grain rice does not produce the creaminess associated with risotto and is therefore not a good substitute for risotto recipes. Introduced from China and cultivated in the Po Valley more recently than arrival of rice farming in Piedmont and Lombardy, it is better suited to seafood and vegetable dishes that do not deploy cheese or fats since its husks do not break down easily and it therefore it does not combine seamlessly with these ingredients.
The rules of risotto - rule three: choose the right method
How do you define an "authentic" cooking method when it comes to risotto? Does such a thing even exist? I first learned to cook risotto as a kid, taught by the mother of my friend Dante. By her own admission, she was a proud Roman and admitted that she had only learned to cook risotto properly when at university in the North; in Milan.
In adulthood, when risotto suddenly became hugely fashionable, I was bombarded by conflicting opinions of endless gourmands and professional TV chefs each professing that his or her method alone was the right one and that what I had learned was rubbish.
"What I can't explain is why a British company has a brand name with with the Scandiwegian spelling. Pretentious, much?"
Then, I met a woman from Milan who taught me a few new tricks, but largely confirmed that what I had been doing was perfectly valid and, since the explosion of online cooking sites, it seems that there are far more people out there aligned with the "rules" and methods I'm elaborating here. If you do it differently, no problem. I'm just sharing what works well for me.
The basic steps behind the rules
There are a few broad principles and "rules" with which to familiarise yourself, and after that you're ready for a lifetime of effortless, delicious risotti. One of the important general principles to know is that risotto dishes that use animal fats such as cheese and/or butter usually involve three stages in the cooking while those that do not only require the first two; do not do not require the final mantecatura stage.
The first stage of making a risotto is referred to as tostatura; toasting. It involves sealing the rice in a hot film of butter, olive oil (a combination of both), lard or even beef bone marrow. In some cases, the rice goes straight into the shallow film of heated fat alone, but in most recipes, it is added to a soffritto. This is basically diced onions and any other relevant vegetable ingredients (such as garlic, thinly sliced celery or saffron) softened in the hot olive or butter before adding the raw rice.
In most recipes, risotto is cooked on a medium-to-high heat throughout the cooking process. But, in some, only this first stage toasting and mixing the raw rice with the soffritto is done on a high heat, requiring vigilance and constant stirring to prevent the raw rice grains from burning.
This is the first big rule: never wash risotto rice because this will strip it of the starches essential to the creamy texture of risotto.
Add the raw rice to the soffritto, stirring continuously so that all of the grains are properly coated. When it starts to emit a wheat-like toasted aroma, add the white wine (or red wine of lemon juice for some recipes), stirring and allowing the rice to absorb the liquid.
The second stage is the overall cooking of the dish in stock. It involves adding the stock of choice. Generally this will be vegetable, beef or chicken while fish stock is used for certain risotto dishes. Nn some recipes, particularly seafood recipes from the Adriatic Coast, thin tomato sauce or diluted tomato purée is used in lieu of stock.
The stock debate — stock or broth is the backbone of risotto's flavour. It is therefore vital that it is of a good quality. This does not mean that it needs to be fresh stock. If you want to do the diehard thing of making your own stock in advance, by all means, knock yourself out. But, as I've repeated frequently, in blind tastings undertaken by expert chefs and foodies, often stock cubes and jellies from widely available mainstream brands have outperformed fresh stock from supermarkets.
What is important about your stock, fresh or otherwise, is that it is of a good quality and, more importantly, but also that it is not of the type that includes herbs or particular spices. Most readymade stock containing herbs looks to French cooking and it is unlikely to contain the right combination of herbs for your risotto recipe.
A brand that I thoroughly recommend is Kallø. I find their organic stock cubes to be of a very high quality and I really like using their very low salt cubes because they give full control over how much salt you want to add to your dish. What I can't explain is why a British company has a brand name with with the Scandiwegian spelling. Pretentious, much?
An alternative to stock is good quality pre-prepared clear soups such as onion soup or a beef consommé. Only use if the contents of the soup match well with the recipe. Ensure that you sieve the soup to remove any larger pieces, such as in the case of onion soup.
Adding the stock or broth —the stock should always be hot when it's added to the cooking risotto. How much stock goes in will depend on the volume of ingredients in your soffritto or other ingredients added in the early stages before adding the broth. For example, most recipes using sausage involve browning it together with the toasting rice before adding the stock. And, it will depend on the depth of your pan. The basic rule is that your stock should barely cover the contents of your pan as you first bring it to a gentle boil before reducing to a simmer.
This leads to the second main guideline: risotto is a dish that requires constant attention. While you may need to only stir it every few minutes in the first half of the simmering process, as the stock boils down and you need to top up the liquid, a ladle at a time, you will need to stir your risotto almost constantly until it is ready. It is important that you keep the rice grains from sticking to each other or to the bottom of the pan by almost constant stirring. You will also need to time mixing in any ingredients added in the final minutes of the cooking, a feature of quite a few risotto recipes.
"...swear by pre-making 'creaminess bombs'; balls of butter mixed with grated parmesan cheese..."
After about 14 to 15 mins of simmering, you need to keep checking the state of your rice by tasting a few grains every few minutes. When ready, it should be al dente. Contrary to what passes for risotto in some establishments, al dente does not mean undercooked in the middle. It should have a certain resistance to bite, but also be fully cooked, a state the happens within a matter of minutes. You need to avoid overcooking the rice.
Also, to really get it right, al dente should coincide with the perfect moisture level for the cooked dish. Contrary to rubbish falsehoods that have spread among the UK's food media (see below), risotto should not have any excess liquid when it's served. As one old Italian cookbook puts it: "Risotto should be served on a flat plate, be eaten with a fork and no excess broth should ever run out to the edge of the plate." There it is, from a grand lady who knows...
When the rice is cooked, remove from the heat and cover. If preparing one of the recipes that don't use cheese and butter in a final stage, simply leave it to rest for a few minutes before serving.
The rules of risotto - rule four: mastering mantecatura
However, with recipes that do use these ingredients, the final stage is mantecatura. This involves vigorously mixing in knobs of butter and/or grated hard cheese. Called bomba, you should prepare these earlier by mixing softened butter and finely grated parmesan (or other hard cheese) together, shaping into balls (or "bombs) and returning to the fridge to harden once again.
In this final stage, you add these bomba, one at a time, to the resting risotto and vigorously stirring them in, allowing them to melt by the heat of the dish itself. The vigorous mixing enhances the creamy texture of these dishes. In some old-school recipes from the North, the women who submitted them swear by pre-making "creaminess bombs"; balls of butter mixed with grated parmesan cheese that are chilled—sometimes using ice cubes—while the risotto is cooking and then mixed in at the last minute.
Bugbears and pitfalls
A constant irritant for me in recent years has been this nonsense about mythical "wet risotto". One influential UK restaurateur with a chain of overpriced eateries that pass for fashionable "quality small plates Italian dining" has been peddling this rubbish and every underpaid, uninformed muppet writing for media outlets, great and small, has fallen for it.
"...a sodden mass of half-cooked Arborio rice drowning in a pool of its own failure..."
Let's be clear: there is no such thing as "Venetian-style wet risotto". If, in fact, this man's legion of baby chefs were making Venetian risi e bisi and doing it well, I would have no complaint. But, for one thing, this dish is not a risotto. The clue is right there in the name. Yes, it does use short grain rice in abundance. But, it's like saying minestrone is a pasta sauce because it contains pasta. If anything, risi e bisi is the Venetian equivalent of a chowder. Just as the potato in chowder renders it an extremely thick soup, so does the rice in this spring pea and pancetta dish from Venice, traditionally served with a spoon.
Perhaps this restaurateur couldn't call his version risi e bisi for fear of being sued by the Comune di Venezia. In fairness, at least the promise of "wet risotto" is accurate, because what you get is a seriously undercooked lump of tasteless risotto sitting in a large puddle of bland pea and ham soup. What I can't understand, however, is why this is a good thing.
Now, bad as this is, one should be able to walk away from it and simply avoid such establishments. Unfortunately, no such luck in the age of the celebrity chef. The result is that the Chinese whispers about "wet risotto" have spread far and wide. From gastropubs and wannabe hip eateries to broadsheet food pages and vlogs, the UK is now awash with the fallacy of "wet risotto" as everyone tries to jump on the bandwagon.
If your idea of a good risotto is a sodden mass of half-cooked Arborio rice drowning in a pool of its own failure, please ignore everything I've written about risotto. Instead head on out for the British hospitality industry's trendy take on "wet risotto" that will see you eating half of it with a straw and trying to get the other half out of your teeth with a TePe interdental brush in the bogs shortly after the silly-priced bill arrives. I, however, will be sticking to my own methods and rules. I will be following the rules.
The reason I mention this at all has to do with the pitfalls. As a result of this heresy, I have noticed an increase in recipes that suggest chucking in large quantities of liquid instead of adding small amounts at a time and waiting until it boils off before adding more. Or, worse still, suggesting that there should be a fair amount of liquid left in the pan to achieve the "real Venetian wet risotto" outcome. Great, go for it if you hate good risotto.
What I would suggest is that you adjust your cooking method for what could otherwise be a great risotto. One undesirable outcome that can result from adding too much liquid all at once is that the rice is already fully cooked before the liquid has sufficiently cooked off. These means that you will either end up with an overcooked risotto by the time the moisture is at an optimal level or, equally undesirable, you have to drain off the liquid which will inevitably result in under-flavoured rice.
It's also going to mean that if the recipe makes use of butter and/or cheese in the final stage it's not going to combine harmoniously because the outer edges of the rice grains, where the starches and fats combine in a good risotto of this type, will remain too sodden for absorption to take place properly.
The solution is to simply not add the liquid all at once if directed to do so by the recipe and, instead, to revert to the ladle-by-ladle rule on adding the stock outlined above.
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