[imcarthur]

Italian risotto is one of those recipes that I avoided for years beacause I heard that it was an 'art' to cook it. It isn't.

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Easy Risotto

Here are the general cooking instructions for preparing a simple risotto. Throw what ever you want into it for a ‘flavored’ risotto but this will give you a nice base. Pretty edible, too.

6 cups chicken stock (I cheat & use 2 x 500ml Campbell’s boxes + 1 x 10oz can + ½ can of water)
1 cup Italian Arborio rice (use the real Italian stuff if you can find it – I use Primo brand)
1 cup Parmesan Reggiano cheese – grated (use the real stuff) Many risotto recipes call for Romano cheese, which is milkier. I like the salty bite of Parmesan.
1 medium onion - chopped
4 cloves garlic – minced
1 green onion – chopped
¼ cup white wine – use a dry white or anything on hand
Olive oil
Butter

Heat the chicken stock to just simmering. Add some chopped herbs such as Italian parsley, thyme or basil to the stock. Dried works too, just toss some in.

Heat 2 tbs of olive oil in a heavy skillet.

Add about the green onion to the oil and sauté for 2-3 minutes over medium heat.

Add your rice. Stir the rice well with the green onions & oil, because the purpose is to thoroughly "coat" the rice. You don’t want to brown it.

Add the wine. Stir.

Add the onion & garlic. Stir.

When the wine is about 3/4 absorbed, reduce the heat to the lowest setting if you are cooking in a heavy skillet (low medium if in anything else) & ladle in enough stock to cover the smoothed out risotto.

Boil it gently, uncovered & stir occasionally. When the added liquid level drops about 1/3, recover the risotto with more stock.

Continue this process several times for about 20 minutes. Add water if you run out of stock. When the absorption rate slows down considerably, the rice should be tender with just a hint of texture to it. Don’t overcook or it will be mush.

Add the cheese & 2 tbs of butter. Stir the risotto profusely to blend in the cheese and butter and remove your finished risotto from the heat.

Let it stand for 3 or 4 minutes and then serve, garnished with some freshly chopped Italian parsley if you want.

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Ian