Dude, I'm tired of going to restaurants where they give you a scoop of rice pilaf and call it risotto. Not only is it insulting to my Italian heritage (we're all a bunch of proud loudmouths who know how to eat), but it's just plain gross. Please allow me to teach you how to do it right. From scratch. The Dago way.
You will need:
Arborio rice (don't get the instant -in-a-box stuff! that's bad!)
a large pot
butter
olive oil
1/2 c. dry white cooking wine
chicken or vegetable broth
fresh grated parmesan cheese (not that powder kind! Yuck!)
...then add whatever goodies you want
Step 1: You have to toast your rice. I usually use about a cup of rice for every 2-3 people I plan to feed. Melt about a tablespoon of butter over medium-high heat, and when it sizzles, toss in your rice. Coat evenly with the butter and stir frequently. When it's toasted, you'll get a nice toasty smell and the rice will turn a pretty yellow color. I usually take about 10 minutes to do this.
Step 2: Lower heat to medium. Add your white wine and stir until it's absorbed and the alcohol has cooked off.
Step 3: This is the important part. You CANNOT rush risotto, you have to have patience and do it right: add about a 1/2 cup of broth and stir until absorbed. This means standing at the stove and stirring pretty much constantly. It will be worth it! Also, you know when you buy a pack of wooden cooking utensils and there's always a spoon with a big hole in the middle of it? That's a risotto spoon! Use that one! So anyway, stir the broth into the rice until it's absorbed- you will know it's absorbed when you can make distinct trails in the rice as you stir. Add another half-cup of broth and repeat.
Step 4: Altogether, you'll probably need about 3 or 4 cups of broth for every cup or so of rice. If you run out of broth, it's ok to substitute warm water. You'll know when the rice is done when you taste it and it's creamy and al dente (meaning it still has a little body, a little bit of a crunch to it-- you don't want to cook it until it's mushy, that is not the Italian way).
Step 5- the fun part: You can enjoy your risotto plain as a side dish, but I like to put stuff in it and serve it as the entree. Get this stuff prepared in between stirs of your rice, then at the end throw it all in & stir together. Some ideas:
- Hot italian sausage (cut it up into little chunks), roasted potato cubes, and arugula
- sauteed sweet red bell peppers and garlic
- sauteed wild mushrooms (whatever kinds you like!)
- sweet italian sausage and roasted fennel
- roasted summer vegetables-- tomatoes, zucchini, sweet pepper, radicchio
- shrimp and celery
- Be creative! This is a dish that you can use whatever you like and it always turns out good!
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