📋The Perfect Authentic Risotto Recipe

📋The Perfect Authentic Risotto Recipe

This risotto recipe is completely versatile, once you master this technique you can make any risotto you like. Here are the steps you need to follow and any tips you need to know. For a fancy dinner party, serve it in a Parmesan bowl to make your table even more festive!

Course Rice

Cuisine Italian

Keyword Italian risotto, Original risotto, Traditional risotto

Prep Time 12

Cook Time 18

Total Time 30

Servings people

Calories 606kcal

Author Laura Tobin

Equipment

Ingredients

Base ingredients for Risotto

⅓ cup butter
1 onion diced
1 cup dry white wine
1 lb Carnaroli rice Carnaroli Riso Gallo (Grand Riserva)
5 cup homemade stock (vegeterian, chicken, beef or fish based on the recipe)
⅓ cup freshly grated Parmesan

Additional ingredients for Risotto alla Milanese

1 package saffron (use brown beef stock)

Additional ingredients for Risotto with Porcini Mushroom

1 pakage dried porcini
10 oz fresh porcini (Frozes Porcini if it is not the season)
2 cloves peeled garlic cloves
¼ cup butter
1 cup boiling water to soak dried mushrooms and add to the chicken or beef stock

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preparing the Porcini for the Risotto

Soak the dry mushrooms in hot water for 10 minutes and add the water to the stock. You can use either brown beef or chicken stock.
5 cup homemade stock, 1 pakage dried porcini, 1 cup boiling water
If you are using fresh porcini, brush off the dirt with a brush
10 oz fresh porcini
Cut the dirt off the end of the stem
In a separate pan stir-fry the fresh (or frozen) Porcini mushrooms with butter, garlic salt and pepper. Remove the garlic once cooked.
2 cloves peeled garlic cloves, ¼ cup butter

Stir-frying the Rice

Stir fry the onion with 30 gr of butter at very low heat, the onion should not burn.
⅓ cup butter, 1 onion diced
Once the onion becomes translucent, add the rice and increase the heat. The rice has to toast in the butter so that the grains are sealed.
1 lb Carnaroli rice
Once the rice is toasted add 1 cup of white wine and let it evaporate.
1 cup dry white wine

Preparing the stock

Warm up the stock. It should be kept warm at low heat in a pan next to the rice.

Stock for Risotto alla Milanese

Use brown beef stock exclusively made with bone marrow and add 1 or 2 packages of saffron
1 package saffron

Cooking the rice

Once the wine has evaporated, lower the heat but not too much. Add the first ladle of warm stock and start counting the cooking time. The stock in the rice should be boiling all the time.
The rice should be continually stirred and stock added regularly but only 1 or 2 ladles at a time.

Adding the ingredients

Vegetables, fish or meat, should already have been cooked separately and added towards the end of the cooking process. Usually after 13 minutes of cooking. in this porcini recipe add the Procini mushrooms.

Cooking time

After 15/18 minutes of cooking the rice, taste it to check if done and if it needs more salt or pepper. Adjust seasoning.

Mantecato

Once the rice is done to your taste, take it away from the heat.
⅓ cup butter
Add the remaining butter and Parmesan, stir well, cover and let it rest for 10 minutes.
⅓ cup freshly grated Parmesan
Serve immediately

Video

Notes

The best rice to use is Carnaroli, second-best Arborio
For a “Signature Risotto” use Carnaroli Grand Riserva, produced to very high standards by the oldest Italian Rise Producer Riso Gallo
Because risotto requires a lot of stirring I would recommend using a wooden spoon with a comfortable handle.
It is also very important to use homemade stock. This is why I always have my homemade stock reserve in the freezer! If you missed the post about stock, you can find it here.
For 1 lb - 500 gr of rice you will use approximately 6 cups - 1.5 litres of stock.
If you are not a confident cook, I recommend preparing the ingredients you want to add to your risotto before you start.
Generally speaking, the ingredients to add to risotto are often stir-fried or baked.
Fresh porcini mushrooms should not be cleaned underwater as they will absorb the water like a sponge. Use a mushroom brush and some kitchen towel.
The water where you soak the dry mushrooms is full of flavour, and you can add it to the stock you use to cook the rice. The rice will absorb the flavour of the porcini while cooking, enhancing its earthy taste.
Some people use expensive wine (+15€ ) to flavour the risotto. A € 7 per bottle dry white wine is fine
To make Risotto alla Milanese use brown beef stock exclusively made with bone marrow.
The rice should be continually stirred and the stock added regularly but only 1 or 2 ladles at a time. If immersed in stock the rice will have a boiled taste.
It is the friction of the stirring that creates that typical creamy consistency of the risotto.
Each rice has a cooking time written on the package, usually around 15 to 20 minutes. But you should not follow it to the minute, use only as a reference. It is only by tasting it that you can perfectly time when the Risotto is cooked and ready to eat.
Once the rice is cooked, it has to be “mantecato” which means you have to add fat.
There are no shortcuts to make an easy risotto
If you use a Pressure pan or an Instant cooker you will have to add the stock all at once at the beginning of the cooking process. The rice will come out watery and not creamy.
If you have left-over risotto, you are in luck. There are many delicious recipes you can make with it, you will find many ideas above

Nutrition