Basic Risotto — Recipes

Ingredients

1 small white onion / Leek
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
3 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1/4 tsp. saffron threads
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
Butter
Salt & pepper

Directions

Finely chop one small white onion and saute it in some butter over medium heat in a two-to three-quart heavy saucepan. Let the onion cook, stirring it occasionally with a wooden spoon, until it smells good and appears translucent.
Pour the Arborio rice into the saucepan and stir to mix with the onions. Let the rice toast in the pan for a minute or two–it will absorb the flavor from the onions.
While the rice is toasting, heat the vegetable or chicken broth in a separate saucepan over medium heat to a gentle simmer. Crumble a pinch of saffron threads into the broth.
Using a ladle, add a cup or two of simmering broth to the rice, then stir the rice until it has absorbed the broth. Keep adding broth to the rice and stirring; this cooking technique helps bring the starch out of the rice to combine with the broth for the creamy texture typical of a classic risotto.
You may not need to use all the broth, so when about three-quarters of the broth has been absorbed (usually 15-20 minutes), start tasting the risotto between additions of broth to see if it’s done. When it’s done, the individual rice grains should still be distinguishable, and their texture should be slightly firm (al dente), but not at all crunchy.
For the finishing touch, stir in an additional pat of butter, grate in real Parmesan cheese, and add salt and pepper to taste. The risotto should be rich, creamy, fragrant, and a beautiful golden color.
Serve the risotto in wide, shallow serving bowls with additional Parmesan cheese grated or shaved on top. Traditionally, risotto is eaten with a fork, and each bite is taken from the edges–this way, the rice at the edges slowly cools and the rice in the deeper center part of the bowl stays hot.

Notes

Don’t wash the rice before adding it, or you’ll lose the precious starch coating the rice grains.
For the best saffron flavor, toast the saffron threads in a small saucepan for a minute over medium heat before crumbling them and adding them to the broth. Don’t use powdered saffron, as the real, expensive saffron is often mixed with cheaper yellow spice powders, such as turmeric or safflower.
Try replacing 1/2 to 1 cup of the broth in the recipe with dry white wine for a more complex flavor. Use a good-quality wine; never cook with anything you wouldn’t drink.
This recipe makes a type of risotto from Northern Italy called “risotto alla Milanese,” traditionally served as a side dish alongside a braised veal dish called “osso buco.” You can easily adapt the basic recipe to create a different kind of risotto. Here are a few suggestions:
For “risotto alla primavera,” leave out the saffron threads, and add a cup of mixed vegetables towards the end of the cooking time–shelled peas, diced zucchini, chopped asparagus spears, or chopped fresh artichoke hearts all make nice additions. Add some chopped fresh basil, grated lemon zest, and/or fresh lemon juice when the risotto has finished cooking.
For “risotto alla zucca,” peel, deseed, and chop a small winter squash such as butternut or acorn squash, add the pieces of squash to the onions in Step 1, season with about 1/4 teaspoon powdered or freshly grated nutmeg and about 1/2 teaspoon powdered cinnamon, and saute until the pieces of squash are tender before adding the rice. Some of the pieces of squash will fall apart completely, so the finished risotto will be lush and sweet and a beautiful golden or orange color. Leave out the saffron threads from the recipe.
For “risotto ai funghi,” leave out the saffron threads, and while the risotto is cooking, saute some chopped wild mushrooms in butter in a separate pan over medium-high heat until they are browned and any liquid put out by the mushrooms has evaporated. Stir in the mushrooms when the risotto is done, and season with about 1/4 teaspoon of chopped fresh thyme. If you have access to truffles, drizzle the risotto with black or white truffle oil when it’s done, or shave some fresh truffle over the top. (Italians also store their dry superfino rice with truffles so it will absorb the truffle flavor.)
Don’t be afraid to stir in that last pat of butter when the risotto is done. This is a traditional step in making risotto, called “mantecare,” and it really makes the risotto taste rich and delicious!