What’s Made of Rice But Twice as Nice?

It’s made rice traders rich, fed the poor through two world wars, and is now a highly prized offering of star chefs. Follow risotto’s long and winding road to the top… Renaissance food.  The plump, round rice that would become the main ingredient for risotto was cultivated in the Po Valley of northern Italy in the 14th century. Wealthy Milanese families recognized its market potential and capitalized on it. Recipes came several centuries later, when Artusi, the first celebrated Italian cookery writer, and chef Vialardi published “Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well,” containing instructions for all types of risotto—with clams, cuttlefish, peas, mushrooms, tomatoes, prawns, even frogs. During the famine years in Italy after WWI and WWII, risotto became an integral part of “cucina provera” or food of the poor, which uses any available food or seasoning on hand—an afternoon of foraging for food near a forest might net you some mushrooms with the risotto, a seaside dweller might add anchovies. Those first locavores gave risotto its character, with each region in Italy creating a specialty dish, from risotto with truffles in Piedmonte, to seafood risotto in Venice, where risotto with sautéed eels is a Christmas tradition.  The most high profile dish of all, Risotto alla Milanese, became the prototype for today’s risotto. According to the “Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink,” the dish dates to 1574, when a stained-glass worker on Milan's cathedral, known for the yellow color of his saffron-pigmented glass, colored the rice at the wedding of his boss's daughter, whereupon the guests pronounced it excellent. The dish became a specialty of Milan, made from saffron, bone marrow, chicken broth and white wine, with butter and Parmesan cheese added at the end of cooking. Risotto started to really cook in American pots after WWII, when the addition of sweet Italian sausage, vegetables and commercially packaged seasoning made an easy and satisfying family meal. In the 1970s, legendary chef Marcella Hazan taught U.S. chefs how to prepare risotto properly in her “Classic Italian Cook Book.” When Arborio, a short-grained rice used to make risotto, became widely available in America in the 1980s, the dish truly came of age.  It starts with the right rice. That creamy, rich and luxurious texture, with just a touch of toothsomeness, can only be achieved with rice varieties that are high in the starch amylopectin, according to eatingwell.com. Arborio is ideal, as are vialone nano and carnaroli; no-no’s are long grain or minute rice. You’ll also need a wide, shallow, heavy-bottomed pan, a wooden spoon, plenty of hot stock and lots of patience – unless of course you are fortunate enough to have tried Chefs Line™. And the big finish, as described by NPR food writer Susan Russo: “mantecare,” or “to stir together." Remove the cooked risotto from the heat, add a knob of butter and freshly grated Parmesan and quickly stir in. This adds silkiness and flavor, and helps bind the ingredients together.  Serve immediately, Russo advises, as “sitting for even 10 minutes on the counter will adversely affect the texture, making it clumpy and gooey.”  Enjoy with just about anything. The menu options are limitless: spring and summer risottos featuring asparagus, English peas and zucchini, and fresh-flavored herbs; autumn and winter risottos made with sweet acorn squash, Swiss chard, savory meats and full-bodied herbs; seafood, chicken, truffles, mushroom risotto; dessert risotto made with hot milk, sugar, spices and a swirl of dark chocolate; risotto pudding topped with wine-poached fruit such as fresh figs, apples or pears. If you have leftover risotto, fry it up into crunchy pancakes called “risotto al salto,” using egg as a binder, or “suppli,” deep fried fritters rolled in fine bread crumbs, or a tasty fried rice…makes a great stuffing for poultry too.

The best serving suggestion comes from the Italian proverb “il riso nasce nell'acqua e muore nel vino," or “rice is born in water and dies in wine.” Translation: add a good dry white wine to accompany your next risotto.

Check out this recipe from the Food Guy for Risotto stuffed tomatoes.

Food Guy  
August 12, 2012