The amazing velvety taste and delicate texture of a rice dish cooked truly in Italian - this is what the chefs offer us, sharing their cooking secrets and recipes for classic risotto. This article will tell you about the best traditional versions of the dish.
A little history
There are many legends and speculations regarding in which city, how and when risotto was first prepared, which has captivated all the world's gourmets. His is considered to be a native Italian dish, but historians claim that the roots come from Arab cuisine and date back to the 11th-12th centuries.
Today it is difficult to get to the bottom of the truth, but if you adhere to the opinion of the majority of culinary specialists, then the first variation of the dish arose completely by accident... An allegedly forgetful cook put rice soup on the stove, and having been distracted for a while, he did not notice how all the water had boiled away, and the vegetables were filled with the aroma of spices and vegetables.
Over time, in 1570, the famous culinary guru Bartolomeo Scappi wrote down more than 1000 original recipes for making risotto in his cookbook!
The history of the popular yellow risotto is no less interesting. A Milanese legend says that the apprentice painting the Duomo always added saffron to his paints. At the wedding of his master's daughter, he played a prank on the guests and added saffron to the rice dish.
All those present were at first frightened by the unnatural color of the rice, but after trying it, they came to the conclusion that this the most delicious thing they've ever tasted.
Selecting Tools and Ingredients
This dish is quite difficult to prepare even for masters who know a lot about their craft. For cooking A heavy cast iron skillet is best, a container for decoction of vegetable broth and a ceramic spatula for stirring all ingredients.
Cast iron heats up perfectly and gives off heat well, allowing rice not just to fry, but to simmer without releasing its beneficial substances and charming aroma.
As you can see, no special tools required. In most cases, what you need is found in the kitchen of a modern housewife.
The main ingredient of any risotto is rice. The secrets of his choice are simple. Perfect round grain variety rich in starch, since it is this that contributes to the velvety texture of the dish.
It is worth paying attention to the varieties Vialone Nano, Arborio or Carnaroli This is the perfect rice for risotto. If they are not available, any other round grain rice will do just fine.
Options
There are thousands of variations of this dish, and each of them requires its own special ingredients. Let's consider the most popular recipes that have found recognition in all countries of the world and won the hearts of culinary masters.
With seafood - “Marinara”
This dish requires the following ingredients to prepare:
- rice 100g;
- extra virgin olive oil 20g;
- squid 50 gr.;
- boiled octopus 50 gr.;
- mussels 120 gr.;
- sea cockerels 100 gr.;
- fish broth;
- selected shrimp (headless) 13-15 pieces;
- tomato sauce 15g;
- dry white wine 40 ml;
- parsley;
- salt and pepper to taste.
To start fry until golden brown all available seafood along with herbs in heated olive oil. Add rice and sauté over low heat for two minutes.
After pour in the wine and wait until it evaporates. Pour in the fish broth little by little and then add the tomato sauce.
The rice is brought to full readiness, and then laid out on a plate and generously decorated with any seafood and herbs. Shrimp or clams are the best garnish for marinara.
How to cook risotto at home with seafood (shrimp, mussels, squid) in cream sauce - watch the recipe in the video:
With cheese and mushrooms
According to the recipe for another popular version of risotto - with cheese and porcini mushrooms or champignons - You will need the following ingredients (for 1 serving):
- rice 100g;
- onion 15g;
- parmesan 30 gr.;
- extra virgin olive oil 20g;
- butter 10g;
- a little mushroom broth;
- mushrooms 100g. (white ones are best, but champignons or chanterelles will also work);
- a bunch of parsley;
- a few tablespoons of cognac;
- salt and pepper to taste.
First, fry the mushrooms in hot olive oil, add the onions, and after a few minutes add the rice itself. Sauteing all ingredients should take no more than 3-4 minutes.
After removing from heat, sprinkle the dish with grated cheese and add a piece of butter. Place the mushroom risotto beautifully on a plate and garnish with finely chopped herbs.
How to properly prepare a delicious risotto with mushrooms and cheese at home according to another recipe - watch the video:
Find out also the most popular ones: you will have something to please your guests!
You will find recipes for making delicious lasagna in this one.
Do you know how to make Italian cheese yourself? Find out how to do this with this recipe for making mozzarella at home:
With minced meat
For this dish you will need:
- rice 130 g (preferably arborio);
- red onion 1 pc.;
- bell pepper (multi-colored, half red and half green);
- minced beef 350 gr.;
- 1 large carrot;
- 1 tsp tomato paste + 1 tomato;
- butter and olive oil for frying;
- grated parmesan to taste;
- chicken broth 500-600 ml;
- salt and pepper.
You can complement the dish with a small amount of dry red wine.
Cut the vegetables into small cubes, pour them into a preheated frying pan and fry over low heat for no more than 3-4 minutes. After a golden crust appears, add the minced meat to the vegetables and cook for another 3-4 minutes.
Then add chicken broth. After the broth has evaporated, pour in a little wine and let it evaporate. Add tomato sauce, pepper and salt to taste. Everything should cook together in about 10 minutes., and then feel free to add rice and cook until al dente.
After removing the dish from the heat, sprinkle everything with Parmesan and fresh herbs, add butter and serve.
Other recipes on video
in this subsection you will find the most delicious video recipes for vegetable, mushroom and even apple risotto.
With chicken and mushrooms
Learn how to prepare classic risotto with chicken and mushrooms from this video recipe:
With vegetables (vegetarian)
A classic recipe for making risotto with vegetables at home is presented in this video:
With pumpkin
Find out how to make pumpkin risotto:
Apple
How to make risotto with apples for dessert - see here:
Surely you have tried the popular Italian dessert - ? Find out how to make this delicious cake at home!
How to serve it correctly?
The most popular way to serve risotto, which can be found in all restaurants, is to spread it small round mound on a plate and decoration with Parmesan, herbs, etc.
This is a very satisfying dish, especially when it comes to risotto with seafood, meat, and mushrooms. That's why serve it in small portions, carefully placing it on a large round plate.
To prevent the “slide” from falling apart, use special split molds for serving(they can be replaced with small deep bowls or bowls), where the dish is initially placed, and then placed on a plate and the mold is carefully removed. After this, all that remains is to correct the edges and decorate the culinary masterpiece.
To make risotto look more appetizing, in addition to decorating with grated Parmesan and herbs, you can use fried slices of mushrooms, clams or mussels.
Remember that risotto should be served immediately after it is cooked. This dish is not served cold!
By following these simple tips, you will prepare an unusually tasty dish at home. And you shouldn’t rush: risotto can't be rushed! Don't try to "rush" it by turning up the heat under the frying pan. Only strict adherence to all stages of preparation will give the desired result.
In contact with
“Risotto is a method, a way in which a master prepares rice. And it requires not only experience and knowledge, but inspiration and intuition.”
Therefore, by daring to cook risotto, I took a great risk of putting myself in a funny position. What if intuition is not enough? No experience!
And yet: I covered myself with guide books, read the famous chef Locatelli, studied a dozen blogs of Italian chefs, bit my lip and... took the plunge. Below is what happened: step by step, carefully listening to the recommendations of professionals and making your own discoveries...
Step-by-step photo recipe for making risotto.
What kind of risotto are we preparing?
There are countless recipes for risotto: with vegetables, meat, fish and seafood, mushrooms, seasonings... For the purity of the experiment, I decided to prepare a basic risotto - without additional ingredients. The Italians call it Risotto Bianco. And then... uh... I changed my mind and added saffron. I just went to the “World of Taste”, and it was lying there on the shelf and looking at me: 0.12 g, 50 rubles. What was to be done? Should I pass by?
So mine Bianco turned into Milanese risotto.
To prepare risotto you will need
Risotto recipe for 4 servings
- rice - 1 cup
- broth - 1 l (chicken, fish or vegetable). I have chicken broth. Attention! Rice:broth ratio = approximately 1:5 or 1:4
- 60 g butter, cut into small cubes (for everything)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- a glass of dry white wine (vermouth, martini)
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 50-100 g of grated Parmesan cheese (to taste: some like it less, some more, I used a bag (40 g) of grated Parmesan)
- saffron - a pinch
Does it matter what kind of rice you use for risotto?
No, it doesn't matter. Risotto rice is made up of two types of starch: one on the surface, amylopectin, is soft and will dissolve during cooking, giving the risotto an all'onda texture (more on what that is below). The second starch is called amylase, and it makes up the core of the rice, which is what makes the risotto all dente—just barely done.Rice for risotto It is also divided into three varieties depending on the size of the grain: semifino, the smallest, Fino and superfino, the largest. There are different varieties of rice in each category, but the main ones are Arborio and Carnaroli (superfino) and Vialone Nano (semifino).
Arborio , rich in external starch, has fleshy grains when cooked. It's great in soups, puddings, rice cakes and other dishes where the sticky texture is ideal: the amylopectin will dissolve and the rice will stick together. Very beautiful rice, with grains like pearls.
Rice is preferred for making risotto, as it absorbs more water in the core rather than dissolving the surface. Then the risotto will be as creamy as possible. In this regard, Vialone and Carnaroli are better, but they are more difficult to find in Russia, while Arborio from Mistral is sold in all major supermarkets.
Just in case, information on poorly accessible varieties:
Vialone Nano has a round, thick grain and a kernel that will retain some of its hardness. Carnaroli has a fine and long grain, very well balanced in both starches, so it is suitable for preparing risotto with finer ingredients that are added at the last minute - such as seafood.
In a beautiful risotto all'onda The rice grains look like small pearls, similar to how they look when raw. The right rice will “take us out” even if we make a mistake with the technology.
Do not rinse or soak the rice before preparing risotto!
Other ingredients for risotto: broth, cheese, wine, butter, onion, saffron
Broth for risotto It can be made from chicken bones, fish and seafood, or vegetables. It is advisable to cook it fresh and according to all the rules. I made chicken stock for the risotto.For a risotto recipe you might find it useful:
Cheese for risotto You also need not just any cheese, but Parmesan, or, as they say here, Parmigiano - a hard cheese with an exquisite, sharp taste. If you can’t get Parmesan, well, try another hard, but very high-quality cheese (this is a violation of technology, but still, the main thing in risotto is not the cheese, but the rice). I purchased a bag of already grated Italian Parmesan.
Wine for risotto. Our serving of risotto will take about half a glass of wine. Italian chefs recommend dry white wine. But you can also find recipes for risotto with dry red wine. Buy according to your taste, the main thing is that it is of high quality. Correct habit: any alcohol that is added to a dish must be of an excellent level.
Oil for risotto. Just buy good butter. It is with it that you will get real risotto. However, if you are a vegetarian, you will have to cook with olive oil. I haven’t tried it and I can’t say whether the dish is the same or whether it’s fundamentally different. But I read from the above-mentioned Locatelli that the all-onda will not work, alas. Everything will be much more approximate.
Onion for risotto. Just a good, juicy onion that will need to be chopped very finely.
. To be honest, I was very intrigued. I knew that this was the most expensive seasoning in the world. I added just a little bit, a small pinch. And I was right: you need to get used to saffron, it has a very special, slightly medicinal taste and aroma. This expensive “pharmacy” was just right for us.
Pasta all dente, risotto all’onda
The standard of proper Italian pasta is inseparable from the concept of al dente. Al dente is when the pasta is slightly undercooked and left to “rest” so that it “cooks” on its own. The criterion here is this: pasta should not melt in your mouth! They need to be chewed, literally “by the tooth.”
As for risotto, it is prepared al-onda. Translated from Italian, all’Onda means “wave”. The ideal texture of risotto should be so soft and uniform that if you shake a plate filled with it, a wave will literally “pass” across the surface of the risotto.
This effect is only possible if all the previous steps - soffritto, tostatura and then mantecatura - are carried out flawlessly.
Mantecare(Spanish Mantequilla - butter) is the last step towards the perfect risotto. At this point, cold cubes of butter and finely grated cheese are added to the risotto and the pan is started to be shaken as quickly as possible until a perfectly even, creamy texture is achieved. More about this later.
All the secrets: 6 steps to prepare the perfect risotto
(Step-by-step recipe for preparing risotto according to the method of Giorgio Locatelli - book “Made in Italy”)The path to perfect risotto consists of 6 steps, but these steps must be followed flawlessly, and only then can you get the perfect risotto.
Important Note: Cook the risotto in a large, heavy-bottomed frying pan.
Step 1: Soffritto
Every great risotto starts with a good soffritto: gently sautéing onions in butter or olive oil. Butter is considered a classic.
At this stage of cooking the risotto, you can add other ingredients besides the onions if you are using them. For example, garlic, celery, etc. - what every housewife knows as frying. BUT: it’s not time to add the main ingredient (shrimp, meat, asparagus, etc., which is part of the risotto recipe). I limited myself to one bow.
The ideal sofritto is when the onion is fried until transparent, and in no case until golden brown. Therefore, be more careful with the fire, do not overdo it, and do not move away from the stove, but stir the contents of the pan non-stop.
Step 2: Tostatura
Tostatura comes from "toast", which in our context means "grains of rice". In this step of cooking risotto, you add rice to the soffritto without liquid and stir.
Make sure that all the grains of rice are well fried: they should darken on the outside but remain white on the inside. It's easy to taste with your fingers; the outside of the grains have softened a little, but when you press, the grains are still hard.
Then add the wine and stir it with the rice until it evaporates. After this, you can proceed to the next step.
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Step 3: Adding Broth
In many guides and recipes for making risotto, especially ours, you can read that you can’t (ever!) use broth from the refrigerator and, especially, from a cube. Only fresh: chicken, fish or vegetables! If you say that many Italian housewives, without flinching, prepare risotto on some kind of knorr, you wouldn’t believe it :). But this is a fact that is unbearable for our culinary snobs who want to be holier than the Pope.
But be that as it may, I just cooked my broth, and I have it hot (very hot) in a saucepan next to me.
Start adding broth and mixing with rice. We do this carefully, ladle by ladle. We poured in a ladle of broth, stirred until it was absorbed, then splashed in again, stirred again, and then until done. The entire process takes approximately 20 minutes. For 250 g of rice you will need about 1 liter of broth, maybe 1.1 liter.
Cook the risotto over medium heat.
When is enough? Look at the proportions in the ingredients, but you can also understand empirically: it is enough to add broth when the rice becomes completely soft on the outside, but retains some structure, a “core” inside. That is, it is slightly al dente. You can try: with your fingers and “tooth”.
Step 4: Adding the Main Ingredient
At this point, if you are making risotto with anything, add the main ingredient. What is your risotto recipe? With shrimps? With mushrooms or something else? Now is the time to add! I have saffron, so I add it. To be honest, I’ve had it for 40 minutes already, dissolved in a bowl of broth. Now I will strain it (to get rid of insoluble stigmas) and add it. Although, it may be a mistake to get rid of the stigmas.
Step 5: Rest
Rest is a minute or two of complete rest of the rice. Relax for Risu. This step allows the temperature to drop and prepares the risotto for the final and most important step.
Step 6: Mantecatura
At this stage of preparing the risotto, we will give the rice a soft, creamy consistency with an all'onda effect. To do this, we will place cubes of very cold butter (about 30-40 g, or more) and finely grated cheese (in most cases in Italy they use Parmigiano) into hot rice and stir with a spoon or shake the frying pan vigorously until we achieve complete dissolution of the butter and proper risotto texture. This is quite an intensive process, your arm may get tired, but believe me, you will be rewarded. Fire is medium.
At the end, add salt and pepper and mix again.
How do you know when risotto is ready? There are 2 indicators (“evidence”): the deep slurping sound of the mantecato risotto and the “wave” effect in the plate.
Risotto should be eaten immediately, piping hot.
Buon Appetito!
Husband's opinion: Everything is good, but not enough.
Daughter's opinion: Everything is fine, but the onion needs to be cut smaller, very finely.
My opinion: It was in vain that I was afraid to add the last ladle of broth (it seemed that the rice was “full” and would not absorb any more). As a result, the risotto turned out to be slightly dry. You need to get wet, get wet! (no joke, everything will be absorbed). Still, the proportions of 1 part rice and at least 4 parts broth are calculated precisely in the risotto recipe, and it is better to follow them, even if something “seems” wrong. And you need to stir for no more than 20 minutes. This is also precisely calculated. Technology! Made in Italy. :)…
Do you like rice? More articles about this versatile product:
Pietro Rongoni is an Italian chef working in Moscow. In his book dedicated to risotto and pasta, he shares the secrets of preparing Italian dishes. Let's try to prepare 5 different risottos according to classic recipes and under the guidance of a master!
Cooking rice is quite difficult. Even chefs have a hard time, especially if this skill is not part of their native tradition. I come from the north of Italy, and rice is still more popular there than in the south. I don't want to say that southerners can't cook it, but in general it's our northern culture.
I adore risotto, I love cooking it, and I enjoy the fact that Russians are gradually beginning to appreciate this dish, which was previously completely unknown in Russia. But the difficulty is that rice is not a paste that you can leave on the stove while you prepare the sauce. You need to keep an eye on the rice and stir it all the time. This is especially unpleasant in the summer, in the unbearable heat: you stand over the stove for 15 minutes and can’t look away for a second!
Rice in risotto retains its shape. But for this it is important to be able to maintain a balance: the rice should be both not hard and not loose. Risotto that is too dry is difficult to digest, and too liquid - well, it’s porridge, not risotto. The secret to achieving such a balance seems to be simple; it lies in the gradual addition of broth in the required volume. But this skill comes with experience. If you add a large portion of broth at once, the rice will quickly reach readiness, and the broth will not have time to evaporate. Therefore, what will you get? It will turn out to be porridge. You should always try what you cook and, based on this, act further.
As a matter of principle, we do not boil rice in boiling water, as is done in other countries - we gradually bring it to readiness. Boiling rice or simmering it in a small amount of liquid are completely different things.
There is a saying: rice is born and dies in water. When it is boiled, it loses its beneficial properties; they all remain in the water. And in risotto, amino acids and proteins are preserved. Boiled rice with sauce is often served as a side dish among the French and many other peoples. In Russia, the first foreign cooks were the French, so the procedure for preparing rice here is the same as in France. And in Italian cuisine, rice is the first dish, and the sauce is already mixed with the rice during cooking.
Do you know what advantages rice has over pasta? It can be combined with any ingredients. Open the refrigerator, take out four of any food, add them to properly cooked rice - and get a brilliant risotto! Of course, I’m exaggerating, after all, not everything can be added, but... almost everything. This trick doesn't work with pasta. In general, if risotto is made with soul, it cannot be tasteless, and this is an axiom that does not require proof!
Risotto bianco
This risotto without additional ingredients is white risotto. To prepare risotto, the pan must be old, used and only for rice. The broth that is poured into the risotto as it cooks should be hot, but not boiling. It is better to cook rice at a constant temperature, avoiding sudden changes.
- 300 g rice
- 50 g butter
- 40 g onion
- 40 g grated parmesan
- 1 liter vegetable broth
- 100 ml dry white wine
- salt pepper
For 4 persons
In a cold frying pan, preferably cast iron and old, put oil - olive or butter (or a mixture of both), then finely chopped onion.
Sauté over medium heat for a few minutes until translucent, then add the risotto rice and fry it with the onion. The rice grains become translucent at the edges and absorb the aroma and taste of the onion and olive oil (if you are preparing risotto with additives, such as mushrooms, then you can add the remaining ingredients at this stage).
Then add alcohol to the rice: cognac, white or red wine (whatever is on hand or what is preferable according to the recipe) and evaporate it almost completely.
After this, add broth (meat, fish, vegetable, etc., depending on the ingredients of the risotto) in small portions and, stirring, bring the rice to the “al dente” state (literally: by the tooth, i.e. to such a degree of readiness, when the rice remains slightly firm, but not tough). At this time, it is better not to leave the stove, since the broth must be added as it evaporates and stirred carefully.
Risotto takes about 16-18 minutes to cook.
When the rice grains swell and release their starch, and there is still some starchy hot mass left in the pan, remove the risotto from the heat and let stand for 1 minute.
Then add a little grated Parmesan to the finished risotto and stir, then add cold butter, cut into cubes, and stir gently until a creamy emulsion forms.
The rice should not be loose or dry, soft, but retain its shape - achieving this state is quite difficult.
Risotto with lemon
- 320 g rice
- 100 g cream (33% fat)
- 1 g saffron
- 2 lemons
- 20 g butter
- 1 vegetable broth cube
- grated parmesan (optional)
- salt to taste
For 4 persons
Prepare vegetable broth by dissolving the cube in 0.5 liters of water. In a deep bowl, beat the cream with a mixer and put it in the refrigerator for half an hour. Meanwhile, start cooking the rice, pouring hot broth over it periodically. Take 2 lemons, squeeze the juice from one, grate the peel of the other. After half an hour, add lemon juice, grated peel, saffron and a pinch of salt to the cream. As you stir, the cream will begin to turn yellowish. 10 minutes before the rice is ready, gradually add the paste obtained from the cream and a piece of butter to it, stir. When serving, if desired, you can add grated Parmesan to the risotto and garnish the dish with a pinch of grated lemon peel.
Risotto with salmon and scamorza cheese
- 100 g rice
- 80 g boneless salmon fillet
- 80 g scamorza cheese
- 10 g red caviar
- bouillon
- 40 ml dry white wine
- 20 g butter
- 20 g extra virgin olive oil
- 5 g onion
For 1 person
Finely chop the onion, place it in a deep frying pan and fry in olive oil until golden brown. Then add the diced fish fillet and fry it lightly. Add the rice and cook for a few minutes, stirring gently.
Pour in the wine and let it evaporate thoroughly. Cook the rice until cooked, gradually adding broth. Cut the scamorza cheese into pieces and one minute before the risotto is ready, mix it with the rice. When serving, garnish the dish with red caviar.
Risotto with porcini mushrooms
- 100 g rice
- 15 g onion
- 20-30 g grated Grana Padano or Parmesan cheese
- 20 g extra virgin olive oil
- 10 g butter
- mushroom broth
- 100 g porcini mushrooms
- 1 bunch of parsley (3-4 sprigs)
- 50 ml cognac
- pepper
For 1 person
Fry the mushrooms in olive oil, then fry the onions with them. Add rice, sauté for a few minutes.
Pour in the cognac and let it evaporate. When all the alcohol has evaporated, begin gradually adding the hot mushroom broth, bringing the risotto until cooked. At the end of cooking, add butter and grated cheese. When serving, place the risotto on a plate, sprinkle with grated grana padano or parmesan, garnish separately with mushrooms fried in a little butter and chopped herbs.
Risotto Marinara
- 100 g rice
- 20 g extra virgin olive oil
- 50 g squid
- 50 g boiled octopus
- 120 g mussels
- 100 g vongole (sea cockerels)
- fish broth
- 40 g headless shrimp (13/15 - palm size)
- 1 bunch of parsley
- 50 g tomato sauce
- 40 ml dry white wine
- 30 g mini cuttlefish
For 1 person
Brown seafood and greens in olive oil. Then combine everything with rice and sauté for a few minutes. Pour in the wine and let it evaporate. Gradually begin adding fish stock, adding more as needed. Add tomato sauce and cook risotto until done. When serving, place the rice in the middle of the plate, decorate it in a circle with shellfish, and sprinkle with finely chopped herbs on top.
There are such warm sunny days when we get together with friends, go to the river together, have fun and just have a good time. In such weather, you want kebabs, personally cooked on the grill, or delicious pilaf, which, thanks to their extraordinary aroma, gathers everyone present around them, making you listen to the rumbling in your stomach and feel wild hunger while this delicacy is laid out on plates. If only all days were like this... But it also happens that it is dirty, cold and damp outside, but you still want good company and a delicious unusual dish. If there is the same picture outside your window, then feel free to gather friends at home and prepare a fragrant, tasty, sunny Italian dish - risotto.
What is risotto? Contrary to popular belief, this is not pilaf or its variety, and risotto cannot be called porridge. This is a completely independent dish, or rather not even a dish, but a way of preparing rice. Once you have mastered the classic risotto recipe, you can use your imagination, previous experience and advice from experienced chefs to create your own unique recipe. This is how the variety of risotto that can be seen today arose. This includes mushroom risotto, and sweet, and traditional meat, and vegetarian, and with the addition of seafood. Risotto can also vary in consistency; if you cook according to the classic recipe, it should turn out creamy, but there are recipe options with a more liquid or, conversely, crumbly consistency.
Why is it better to cook risotto in pleasant company? You can cook alone, but you won’t be able to eat it alone. Risotto loves a group of 4-6 hungry people. The cooking process itself takes no more than 20-25 minutes, but requires a lot of attention and patience. But you will have to spend a lot of time and effort on preparation. There will be something to keep your friends busy, and everyone will have time to get hungry. What do you need to prepare to make a delicious risotto? As always, we start with the dishes. A good risotto will not turn out without a wooden spoon, which is needed for constantly stirring the rice, a ladle with which you will add broth, a large saucepan, preferably 8 liters, a large cast-iron frying pan with a comfortable handle in which the risotto will be cooked, and also a very fine cheese grater.
Utensils, of course, play an important role, but without quality products, all efforts to find suitable utensils will be in vain. Wilted carrots and greens, onions that have become a little soft, semi-hard cheese, long-grain rice and sugary Cahors are not suitable for risotto. All ingredients must be fresh and tasty, so that you will definitely like them, all together and each individually. Exactly what ingredients to stock up on depends on what kind of risotto you are planning to cook. We suggest making risotto with porcini mushrooms. This recipe cannot be called classic, but with this example you can understand the basic principle of preparing this Italian dish.
Risotto does not start with rice at all, but with properly cooked broth. The broth can be vegetable, meat or fish; sometimes purified drinking water can be used instead of broth. For mushroom risotto, no matter how strange it may sound, chicken broth is suitable. Chicken broth is not the liquid that remains after boiling the chicken; it is prepared as a separate dish, with the addition of vegetables, spices and herbs. To prepare a good chicken broth, you will need 5 liters of purified drinking water, 1 nice chicken, 2 beautiful carrots, 2 juicy white onions, a teaspoon of peppercorns, a little coarse sea salt, a glass of dry white wine and a group of activists who will help cut it all, grind, chop and cook. In fact, much more wine may be needed, since activists will not help just like that.
So, get out your big pot and start creating. Rinse the chicken thoroughly in running water, separate the legs and wings from it, and cut the remaining body into 4 parts. Place the chicken in a pan, add a little sea salt and add 5 liters of water. You need to add very little salt, no more than a pinch, since the broth should remain practically unsalted. While you are doing all these manipulations with chicken and salt, ask your friends to lightly crush the peppercorns with a knife and chop the onions and carrots. In this case, you need to ensure that the carrots are cut into large pieces, and the onions into very small pieces, each piece should be the size of a grain of rice.
Once the chicken is in the pan and the carrots and onions are chopped, place a dry cast-iron frying pan on the heat, add the carrots and onions, and cook until the onions become translucent. Place the pan on the fire, wait until it boils, reduce the heat to low and send the most patient person to skim off the foam that forms. When there is no foam left, it’s time to add vegetables and peppers and cover the pan with a lid for an hour and a half. At this time, you can prepare other ingredients or drink some wine and indulge in memories of bright sunny days. After an hour and a half, pour a glass of dry white wine into the broth. And after another 25 minutes, make a bouquet of your favorite greens, adding a bay leaf and lower it into the pan for a few minutes. Strain the finished broth and pour into a clean saucepan. Finally the broth is ready!
We've sorted out the most important thing, now you can start preparing the risotto itself. For this you will need 400 grams of Arborio rice; you can try to find other rice for risotto, for example, Carnaroli or Vialone nano, but Arborio is found on the shelves of our stores much more often. Also prepare 250 grams of fresh porcini mushrooms, 1 small head of white onion, 1 small clove of garlic, a bunch of parsley, 100 grams of your favorite butter, 1 more glass of dry white wine, 2 liters of previously cooked chicken broth, 50 grams of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, salt , freshly ground black pepper and a few saffron stigmas.
It is worth briefly explaining why this particular rice, this particular cheese and only dry wine are used to prepare risotto. Rice suitable for risotto contains two types of starch, one located on the surface of each grain of rice, which gives it a creamy texture, and another located inside, which prevents the rice from overcooking and turning the risotto into mush. It is to preserve the starch on the surface of the grains that rice for risotto should never be washed. Just like three types of rice, only three types of cheese can be called ideal for risotto. These are Parmigiano Reggiano or Parmesan, Grana Padano and Trentingrana. All these cheeses have a grainy structure in common, and they are the ones used in the classic risotto recipe. When it comes to choosing wine, things are much simpler. In fact, there are only two requirements for it: it must be dry and of high quality. If these two requirements are met, then which wine you decide to use does not matter.
If you continue in this vein and talk about each ingredient, the company you have gathered will be hungry to eat the chicken used to cook the broth, so involve them in preparing the products. Measure out 400 grams of rice, peel, wash thoroughly and chop the mushrooms, chop the parsley very finely, put the broth on low heat, grate the cheese and finely chop the onion, put a pinch of saffron in a glass and pour over the hot broth. Only now can you start preparing the risotto itself.
Take out your large cast iron frying pan, place it on the fire and heat about 30 grams of butter. Add finely chopped onion to the oil and fry it until it becomes transparent. At this stage, you cannot be distracted, because if the onion burns, you will have to throw it away and start frying a new portion. Now it's the turn of rice. Pour it into the pan in a quick circular motion. From now on, constantly stir the future risotto. Fry the rice until it becomes almost transparent and make sure that it is evenly soaked in oil. Now pour in the wine, mix it with the rice and cook, stirring constantly until the rice has absorbed all the wine.
Immediately after the wine has been absorbed, you can start adding broth. By this point it should be boiling. Use a ladle to scoop up the broth and pour it into the pan, stirring the rice until it has absorbed all the broth. Then add the broth again and stir again. While you're making the broth, so that your invited friends don't get bored, ask them to cook the mushrooms. To do this, heat 30 grams of butter in a separate frying pan, add a clove of garlic and chopped mushrooms to it and fry them over high heat for 3-4 minutes. You need to make sure that the mushrooms do not burn, so constant stirring is required here. Ready mushrooms need to be lightly salted and peppered, remove the garlic and add finely chopped parsley.
When the pot of broth is half-full, add the mushrooms to the risotto and pour in the broth with saffron, stir and continue adding broth in small portions. When the rice is ready, remove the pan from the heat. Cut the remaining butter into small cubes, add it to the risotto along with the finely grated cheese and mix thoroughly until the mixture becomes homogeneous.
Now you can put the risotto on plates and eat it immediately. Although after such a long preparation for this event there must have been a serious appetite, the risotto would probably disappear from the plates before it even appeared there. Perhaps such a long cooking process was not invented by chance and is intended to contribute to the appearance of hungry rumbling in the stomach, so that later there will be no trace left of the cooked risotto, because eating it cannot be put off until later. Bon appetit and sunny mood!
Alena Karamzina
The frozen seafood cocktail must be removed from the packaging in advance, placed in a colander placed over the pan and allowed to defrost and drain the liquid.
Peel the onion and garlic and chop very finely.
Heat butter in a frying pan and add onion. Simmer until translucent over low heat for 3-4 minutes. Add garlic and simmer for another 1 minute.
Pour the risotto rice into the pan without rinsing, mix it well with the vegetables so that it absorbs the oil and garlic-onion flavor.
Pour half the broth into the pan, stir gently, reduce heat to low, cover with a lid and leave. After 5 minutes, check - if the broth has been absorbed, add more, stir and close again and leave. After another 3-4 minutes, repeat the procedure, adding wine along with the broth, stir again and leave again for 3-4 minutes.
Depending on the type of rice, you may have some unused broth left over. Or maybe a little is not enough, in this case you can add a little water. The main thing is that by the time the rice has been cooking in the pan for a total of 15 minutes, it has absorbed all the liquid so that there is no excess liquid left. That is why it is recommended to add liquid in stages.
The broth should be at least room temperature, preferably hot. So when using frozen broth from stock, it must be thawed and reheated in advance. If you take cold broth, when added to the pan, it will sharply lower the temperature of the cooked dish and it may take much longer for the rice to reach readiness.
Squeeze the seafood cocktail thoroughly. There is absolutely no need for excess water in risotto.
Place the seafood in a frying pan with the rice, stir, cover and leave for 5 minutes over low heat.
Seafood for seafood cocktails, as a rule, is already boiled and frozen. Everything except squid. Therefore, 5 minutes will be enough for the main part of the cocktail to warm up, and for the squid to cook, but not have time to become rubbery.
When purchasing a seafood cocktail, try to purchase a vacuum-packed one; it contains much less ice and, after defrosting, the weight of the seafood itself will be greater.
If you use fresh seafood for a classic risotto, then they must be added to the rice in stages so that by the end of cooking (which is 20 minutes from the moment the rice is added) all the seafood is ready.
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