WITH north Italian cooking still a raging passion, it seems that in one corner of every fashionable restaurant kitchen there's a sous chef stirring frenetically at a steamy, creamy vat of risotto. There's Risotto of Cepes in the Tea Room at the Clarence; Smoked Chilli Risotto in Peacock Alley; Mushroom Risotto in Roly's at lunchtime and Saffron Risotto in the evening. And a jolly good thing, too. Few dishes are as comforting as a plate of voluptuous, buttery risotto with Parmesan cheese melting on the top.
You'd be tempted to describe it's sheer ambrosia, if that word hadn't been commandeered by a altogether different sort of rice.
One of the most bizarre but delicious meals I've ever had was an eight course dinner based in its entirety on via lone nano, the Rolls Royce variety of Italian short grain rice. It was cooked by Gabriele Ferron - a man who has become a kind of travelling saviour for artisan produced rice - at his family's old mill at Isola della Scala, among the rice fields south of Verona. The menu, it must be said, looked daunting, with six sorts of risotto sandwiched between a first course of little olive flavoured rice balls and a grand flourish of Semifteddo di Riso at the end - a sort of rice filled tiramisu. Miraculously, stomach space was found. I still dream about that sequence of risottos, the stars of the show.
Like so much in Italian cooking, risotto is a simple dish with rustic roots - a clever, inexpensive way of making a staple food tasty. It's essential, however, to use real risotto rice. If you can get your hands on it, try either carnaroli or the highly prized via lone nano - brought from the east by Marco Polo and first tried out by the Viscontis, no less. Next, in order of refinement, comes arborio. All of these northern Italian varieties have the ability to produce the right sort of creamy mixture while still retaining a little bite at the centre of each fat little grain. Risk everyday, long grain rice and you'll be rewarded with a watery mush.
Risotto is easy to make, requiring no more flamboyant culinary skills than the ability to pour and stir. The one thing it demands is viligance. There is a knack to achieving just the right consistency which, by the way, is much more fluid than some of the sticky travesties served up outside Italy. In the Veneto, risotto's home territory, they say it should be all'onda - wave like, still quite liquid.
The trick is to add the hot stock bit by bit, stirring between ladlefuls and waiting until each has been absorbed. The saucepan should be kept bubbling quite merrily all the while so that the liquid evaporates at the right rate. Too fast, and the grains of rice will not be al dente but like tiny pellets of bone. Too slow, and the mixture turns stiff as a pot of glue. The total cooking time recommended for creamy perfection is 18 minutes.
Besides being inexpensive, relatively quick to make and utterly delectable, risotto has one other great virtue. It goes brilliantly with a glass of wine, and you need never have a moment's agony about which to choose. Those that come from north east Italy, where so much risotto rice is grown, suit perfectly (see today's Wine Column). Often, a glass or two of the right stuff will be in the recipe, making the choice crystal clear. As usual, the Italians hand out encouragement in the form of a poetic little sayings. "Rice is born in water and it dies in wine."
All the recipes serve 4.
Risotto with Asparagus
THIS recipe belongs to Gabriele Ferron whose family has produced via lone nano rice in the Veneto for generations. His method is different from the usual one for risotto: all the stock is added at once, rather than bit by bit, and the dish is then covered and left to finish cooking.
450g (1 lb) thin, fresh aspar agus
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
80ml (3 fl oz) Soave (dry white wine)
1 litre (1/4 pints) vegetable stock
450g (1 lb) risotto rice (Ferron specifies viaione nano or earnaroh
2 tablespoons butter salt
Place asparagus stalks on a chopping board, cut each in three equal sections and discard the tough bottom third.
Heat half the olive oil in a medium saucepan over a low flame. Add the garlic onion and asparagus tops and saute for two to three minutes, being careful not to brown it. Add the wine and cook for another few minutes. Set aside.
In another pan, simmer the stock and add the middle third of the asparagus.
In a separate deep, heavy bottomed saucepan, heat the remainder of the olive oil over low to medium heat. Add the rice, raise the heat to moderate and cook for two to three minutes to coat the rice, stir ring often with a wooden spoon. Add the stock. Stir gently, cover and simmer over a low heat for 10-12 minutes.
Add the asparagus tips, cover again and simmer for another seven to eight minutes. Add the butter and salt to taste. Stir very gently and serve.
. Suggested wine: Soave Classico Superiore
Risotto with Spinach and Prawns
THE flecks of pink and green make this Gabriele Ferron dish look very attractive. Again, all the stock is added at once and the risotto cooks covered.
450g (1lb) fresh spinach salt
12 prawns (about 225g/1/2lb)
1 litre (1/4 pints) vegetable stock
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped pinch of red pepper flakes
450g (1lb) risotto rice (viaione nano, carnaroli or arhorio)
3 tablespoons butter, unsalted if possible
Wash and rinse the spinach well in several rinses of water. Drain well, put in a saucepan, add salt and cook for about five minutes without adding more water. Drain well, rinse under cold water, squeeze out as much liquid as possible, chop finely and set aside.
Shell and de vein the prawns. Add the shells to the hot stock and simmer for about half an hour, then strain. Chop the prawns.
Heat three tablespoons olive oil in a medium saucepan over a low heat, saute the garlic and prawns briefly, just until the prawns turn pink. Add the cooked chopped spinach. Add salt and paprika, stir, cover and set aside.
In a separate deep, heavy bottomed saucepan heat the remaining oil gently. Add the rice, raise the heat to moderate and cook for a few minutes to coat the rice, stirring often with a wooden spoon.
Add the simmering stock. Stir gently, cover, lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the spinach and prawn mixture, stir gently, cover again and simmer for another six to eight minutes.
Add the butter, stir gently and serve.
. Suggested wine: Soave Classico Superiore or Lugana
Pancetta and Parmesan Risotto
HERE is how Nigel Slater introduces this scrumptious recipe in his book The 30 Minute Cook: "Pancetta is Italian bacon. But what bacon! Moist and mildly spiced, it has a generous amount of sweetly scented fat that melts into the butter to give a fine cooking medium for the onions. Pancetta deserves a wider distribution but you should be able to find it in the nearest Italian delicatessen. Buy it in the piece, rather than the silly wafer thin slices the supermarkets offer."
1 large onion
125g (4 1/2 oz) pancetta, diced 75g (3oz) butter
450g (1lb) risotto rice (vialone nano, carnaroli or arborio)
1 1/2 litres (2 1/2 pints) hot chicken stock large knob of butter
75g (3oz) freshly grated Parmesan cheese
In a heavy based saucepan cook the onion and pancetta in the butter until the onion is soft (about five minutes). Add the rice and stir for a minute while it fries lightly in the butter. Pour in a ladleful of hot stock.
Let the rice simmer gently, adding another ladle or two of stock as it is absorbed by the rice. Stir almost, but not quite, continuously, till the rice has taken up all the stock.
Stir in the knob of butter and grated cheese, taste and add salt if necessary. Eat immediately.
. Suggested wine: Masi Campofiorin or Toar
Risotto with Amarone
A CLASSIC regional recipe, combining the rice grown in the Veneto with that region's greatest red wine. Wonderfully rich and sustaining and you know what to drink with it. This version comes from The River Cafe Cookbook by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers.
300ml (10 fl oz) chicken stock sea salt and coarsely ground black pepper
150g (5oz) butter
2 medium red onions, peeled and chopped
300g (10oz) risotto rice
(viaione nano, carnaroli or arborio)
600ml (21 fl oz) Amarone di
Valpolicella wine
150g (5oz) Parmesan, freshly grated a little double cream
Heat the chicken stock and check for seasoning.
Melt two thirds of the pan in gently fry the onion for about 20 minutes until light brown. Add the rice and stir to coat: this takes only a minute.
Increase the heat, pour in 175ml (6fl oz) of the wine and let its reduce to a syrup. Add the hots' stock, ladle by ladle, stirring all the time, only adding more when the rice has absorbed the previous addition.
When the rice is almost cooked and all the stock has been absorbed, gradually add the remaining wine. The rice should immediately take up the colour of the wine.
Add half the Parmesan, the remaining butter and a little cream, and season, taking care not to overstir. Serve with the rest of the Parmesan.
Six crucial cooking tips
1 Always use short grain Italian rice (carnaroli, via lone nano or arborio).
2 Never wash it! The starch in the rice help make the risotto creamy.
3 Soften the onions but don't brown them (except for Risotto with Amarone), or they'll give off too sweet a flavour.
4 Keep the stock simmering while you add it to the rice. If you rung short, add simmering water.
5 Keep the risotto at an even, lively boil throughout the cooking process so that the stock evaporates at the right rate. You should need to add more liquid about every two minutes. (When your wooden spoon leaves a clear track across the bottom of the saucepan, the moment is right.)
6 Always serve risotto the minute it is ready, on warm plates.