What is risotto made from rice. Cooking rice the Italian way: the most delicious classic risotto recipes! General recipe for making risotto

Probably, all products that come to Italy turn into special dishes in the hands of experienced Italian chefs. Italian espresso coffee, tomatoes and numerous sauces based on them, corn and Asian rice began a completely different life on the shores of Italy. Risotto is perhaps one of the clearest examples of this. This simple dish, which takes about 30 minutes to prepare, resembles pilaf and has just as many cooking options.

Risotto cannot be called an old dish, but it has organically entered Italian cuisine. First of all, the Italian origin of the dish gives out the method of preparation and the presence of your favorite olive oil. Risotto seems like a difficult and inaccessible dish to make at home, but we will show you that this is not the case and tell you how to cook risotto. In Italy, risotto is prepared at home, and moreover, in each house it is prepared in its own way. There are dozens of options - with seafood, with meat, poultry, fish and vegetables, in various broths, with varying degrees of rice readiness, but it is always tasty and with minimal loss of useful properties of the products.

The opinion that cooking risotto requires constant attention is not entirely true. The only condition for successful cooking is constant stirring, the rest is easy, and if you have helpers, then cooking risotto will be fast. In order to cook everything correctly, you will need to learn the basic principles of cooking, but in any case, everyone gets a unique risotto.

So, how to cook risotto, you will need: two pots (for rice and liquid), a plastic or wooden spatula.

Ingredients: rice, garlic, oil, onion, stuffing (meat, fish, seafood, mushrooms). Cooking time: about 30 minutes.

There are two main types of rice - long grain fluffy and round sticky. Risotto needs sticky. Such rice is not very popular due to the fact that when cooked, the rice grains stick together into porridge, with which it is difficult to make something decent later. As a last resort, it is used in soups and, of course, round rice is the basis of Japanese rolls and sushi. Round varieties of rice contain a lot of arnilopectin starch, which binds the grains together during cooking. Rice for risotto is not washed because it will wash out the starch. Starch is best released at a low boiling point (when the liquid does not gurgle, but rather trembles) and with stirring. So, for successful cooking, you need a burner with good flame control. Good means minimal heating with the possibility of easy adjustment.

Italians use different fats to cook risotto. So, in the north of Italy they use butter, and in the south - olive oil. Ideally, the broth for cooking should be chicken, but this rule is conditional, and the broth can be vegetable or a mixture of vegetable and juices after frying meat or tomato juice. You can create your own broth. You can enhance the flavor of the future dish by adding pieces (trimmings) of the main filling to the broth.

Here is a basic recipe for how to make risotto with step by step explanations:

Ingredients (for 4 servings):
400 g rice
1 liter broth or water
1 garlic clove
2 bulbs
100 ml vermouth
150 ml white wine
50 g butter (unsalted)
75 ml olive oil
75 g parmesan,
1 tbsp whipped cream or mascarpone cheese
salt and pepper to taste.

Cooking:
Bring the broth to a boil over low heat, but do not let it boil. In another saucepan, heat the olive oil and, stirring constantly, pour the rice into it. Rice will crackle as it cooks. Continue stirring, and when a nutty flavor develops, add the onion, garlic, and half the butter to the rice. Reduce the heat and, continuing to stir, fry the rice for another 5 minutes. Pour white wine into the rice and, again, without ceasing to stir, boil down by half. Add vermouth and boil again. Throughout the cooking, do not stop stirring - the quality of the dish depends on it.

Add the broth from the first pot to the rice in small portions (large spoon or ladle). Make sure the rice doesn't stick to the sides or bottom of the pot! Add broth until you feel you have enough (the risotto should feel like a thick soup). If there is not enough broth, immediately boil water and add it (it is better to have boiled water at the ready, for example, in a thermos).

The cooking time of rice depends on whether you like rice with hard kernels (al dente) or well-cooked. When cooking rice, do not forget that it must retain its structure and not turn into gruel - this will be wrong. Keeping the rice at the boiling point, not letting it boil, stir constantly as you add the broth. Don't go to the other extreme where too little temperature interferes with the extraction of starch from the rice. Take the risotto off the heat a little thinner than expected. Pour the butter into the risotto and let it sit on the stove for a few minutes. During this time, the rice will absorb excess liquid. The last stage of preparation is the introduction of parmesan and butter, which are driven into the risotto with a whisk, everything is intensively mixed until a viscous state is reached. At this stage, you can add additional cream or mascarpone cheese, olive oil, pepper, salt and lemon juice to the risotto.

Cauliflower goes great with risotto. Try to cook

Puree velout from cabbage.

Ingredients:
600 g cauliflower flowers,
a pinch of curry
90 ml heavy cream
90 ml 2.5% milk,
90 ml chicken stock
2 tbsp. tablespoons chopped chives (chives)
cocoa.

Cooking:
Boil 500 g cabbage with curry in broth, transfer to a food processor or blender. Let cool and puree until smooth, adding cream and milk. Pass the puree through a sieve, transfer to another saucepan and simmer for about 5 minutes until the taste of raw cream disappears. Prepare the risotto according to the basic recipe and a few minutes before it is ready, whisk in the cabbage puree, parmesan and butter. Add chopped chives, salt and black pepper. When serving, sprinkle with fresh cauliflower florets and cocoa powder.

There are proven combinations of how to cook risotto with vegetables, which are very good for their simplicity for the first preparations, for example:

Risotto with green peas

Pea filler is prepared in a similar way to cauliflower and is combined with risotto prepared according to the basic recipe.

Ingredients:
400 g peas
75 g butter,
salt and pepper to taste.

Cooking:
If you have the opportunity to get fresh peas, then this is very good - use it, if not - it does not matter, you can safely use frozen ones. Defrost peas at room temperature (do not use ovens or special heating). Grind the peas in a food processor or blender until pureed. Pass the resulting mass through a sieve or a special press for vegetables. Heat the puree in butter in a small saucepan. Salt, pepper. Do not overheat the puree - it should be hot enough, but not lose its fresh green color. The finished puree can be added to the risotto or allowed to cool, cover with cling film and store in the refrigerator. Can be used within 2-3 days by gently rewarming a serving.

Remember the basic rules for making risotto: stir continuously and make sure that the broth is at the boiling point, but not boiling.

Buon appetito!

There are several versions of the origin of risotto. It is not known for certain who and when the recipe was invented. It is generally accepted that risotto originated in northern Italy.

Many restaurants around the world offer a classic risotto recipe with chicken, seafood, vegetables or mushrooms on the menu. The simplicity of the technique and the available ingredients make it possible to cook a gourmet dish at home.

Risotto looks festive and can decorate not only the everyday dining table, but also become the highlight of the festive menu. Risotto can be not only a classic with chicken meat, but also a lean, vegan dish with vegetables.

Vialone, carnaroli and arborio are suitable for making risotto. These three types of rice contain a lot of starch. When cooking, it is better to use olive oil.

The classic and most popular recipe is chicken risotto. In order for the risotto to acquire the desired structure, rice must be periodically mixed during cooking.

This simple recipe can be prepared every day for lunch, served on the festive table.

Ingredients:

400 gr. chicken meat;
200 gr. rice
1 liter of water;
50 gr. parmesan cheese;
2 onions;
1 carrot;
100 gr. celery root;
1 bell pepper;
30 gr. butter;
90 ml dry white wine;
1 st. l. vegetable oil;
saffron;
Bay leaf;
salt;
pepper.

Cooking:

Prepare the broth. Put the chicken meat, previously cleaned from the film, into the water. Add bay leaf, onion, carrot and spices. Boil the broth for 35-40 minutes. Then take out the meat, salt the broth and cook for a few minutes under the lid.
Cut the meat into medium pieces.
Pour broth over saffron.
In a hot skillet, mix butter and vegetable oil.
Add finely chopped onion to the pan and fry until translucent, do not fry.
Do not rinse rice before cooking. Pour the cereal into the pan.
Fry the rice until it has absorbed all the oil.
Pour in the wine.
When the wine is absorbed, pour in a cup of broth. Wait until the liquid is completely absorbed. Gradually add the remaining broth to the rice.
After 15 minutes, add the meat to the rice. Strain the saffron through cheesecloth and pour the broth into the rice.
When the rice is the right consistency—hard on the inside and soft on the outside—salt the dish to taste and add the grated cheese. Place small pieces of butter on top of the risotto.
Serve hot so the cheese doesn't harden.

Risotto with mushrooms and chicken

This is a common way to make risotto. The harmonious combination of the taste of chicken and mushrooms gives the rice a delicate spicy aroma. The dish can be cooked with any mushrooms, served for lunch or a festive table.

Ingredients:

300 gr. chicken fillet;
200 gr. mushrooms;
1 glass of rice;
4 cups of broth;
1-2 tbsp. l. dry white wine;
2 tbsp. l. butter;
1 st. l. vegetable oil;
2 onions;
100-150 gr. parmesan cheese;
salt;
pepper;
parsley.

Cooking:

Melt the butter in a cauldron or deep frying pan.
Cut the mushrooms into small pieces. Cut the fillet into slices or divide by hand into fibers.
Fry the mushrooms in a skillet until golden brown. Put the chicken meat to the mushrooms and fry for 15 minutes.
Transfer the chicken and mushrooms to a separate bowl. Pour vegetable oil into the pan.
Fry the onion in vegetable oil for 5 minutes.
Pour rice into the pan, fry for 5-7 minutes, mix thoroughly.
Add dry wine and salt, simmer until liquid evaporates.
Pour a cup of broth into the pan. Wait for the liquid to be absorbed.
Continue to gradually add the broth in small portions.
After 30 minutes of cooking rice, transfer the meat with mushrooms to the pan, mix the ingredients. Sprinkle the risotto with grated cheese.
Decorate the finished dish with herbs.

This is a popular recipe for rice with vegetables among lovers of light, vegetarian cuisine. For the preparation of the lean version, vegetable oil is not used, and lean cheese is added, during the preparation of which rennet of animal origin was not used. For the vegetarian version, vegetable oil and water are used.

Cooking time - 1 hour.

Ingredients:

1.25 liters of chicken broth or water;
1.5 cups of rice;
2 celery stalks;
2 tomatoes;
1 sweet pepper;
200 gr. zucchini or zucchini;
200 gr. leek;
dill and parsley;
4 tbsp. l. vegetable oil;
half a glass of grated cheese;
salt;
pepper;
Italian herbs.

Cooking:

Pour the tomatoes with boiling water first, and then with ice water. Remove skin.
Cut the vegetables into even-sized cubes.
Put a frying pan on the stove, pour in 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.
Put the celery and bell pepper into the pan. Fry for 2-3 minutes. Add squash or zucchini and fry.
Put the tomatoes in the pan and simmer with Italian herbs and pepper for 5-7 minutes.
In a second pan, sauté the leek for 2-3 minutes. Add rice and fry for 3-4 minutes.
Pour 1 cup of broth over the rice. Cook over low heat, stirring. When the liquid has evaporated, add another half cup of broth. Repeat the process 2 times.
Add stewed vegetables to the rice, pour in the last portion of the broth, salt to taste, add pepper and simmer until the liquid is completely absorbed.
Chop up the greens.
Grate the cheese.
Sprinkle hot risotto with herbs and cheese.

Ingredients:

250 gr. rice
250 gr. seafood to your taste;
2 cloves of garlic;
350 ml of tomatoes, canned in their own juice;
800-850 ml of water;
1 onion;
4 tbsp. l. vegetable oil;
parsley;
salt, pepper to taste.

Cooking:

Peel and cut the onion into cubes, chop the garlic with a knife.
In a frying pan, pour vegetable oil and fry the onion until translucent.
Saute the garlic for 25-30 seconds along with the onion.
Put the seafood in the pan, fry until half cooked.
Pour rice into the pan. Mix the ingredients and fry the rice until translucent.
Put the tomato sauce into the pan. Pour in a cup of water and boil the rice until the liquid evaporates. Gradually add water. Cook Italian risotto until al dente, 25 to 30 minutes.
Salt and pepper the risotto at the end, before the last serving of water.
Chop the parsley and sprinkle over the cooked hot dish.

Risotto cooked in a creamy sauce is a soft, tender dish. Porcini mushrooms, delicate creamy aroma and delicate structure of rice will make it a decoration of any table. Risotto is prepared quickly, they can surprise unexpected guests by preparing a gourmet dish in a hurry.

Cooking time - 40 minutes.

Ingredients:

500 ml chicken broth;
150 gr. rice
50 gr. white mushrooms;
150 ml cream;
100 gr. hard cheese;
20 gr. butter;
20 gr. vegetable oil;
salt to taste.

Cooking:

Place a pot of broth on the stove and bring to a boil.
Pour vegetable oil into the pan and fry the rice until golden brown.
Add a cup of broth to the rice, simmer until the liquid evaporates. Add broth as it evaporates. Cook rice this way for 30 minutes.
Saute mushrooms in vegetable oil.
Add butter to mushrooms. Wait for the mushrooms to brown and pour in the cream.
Grate the cheese. Mix the cheese and mushrooms and cook the cream sauce until the consistency of low-fat sour cream.
Combine the ingredients, mix and add salt to taste.
Simmer the risotto for 5-7 minutes.

Risotto, a classic warming and hearty rice dish from northern Italy, has long taken the world by storm. Almost everyone already knows that rice should be “al dente” (to the tooth), that risotto needs broth, not water, and that grated cheese is often added at the end. But not everyone knows how to make creamy risotto and how to add other ingredients to the dish.

Basically, risotto is served as a first course, with the exception of (risotto with saffron) served with a meat dish . Risotto can be very simple and also incredibly complex. Depends on your preferences and what you cook with.

Making a good risotto requires attention and knowledge of some cooking techniques, but the effort is worth it. When you know the basic cooking technique, you can try to cook millet, bulgur or even barley in the same way. These grains are starchy enough to give a creamy texture.

So:

1) Rice selection: risotto requires round-grain rice, which is rich in starch, which helps to achieve the right creamy consistency. The best varieties of rice are arborio, carnaroli or vialone nano. I do not advise buying rice with the inscription "for risotto", the grains of such rice are often not the same size, which will not allow all the rice to be cooked evenly.

Varieties of carnaroli and vialone nano, longer than Arborio keep the middle of the rice grain in a state of "al dente". Also, when cooking risotto, they absorb more liquid.

This must be taken into account when preparing a dish.

IT IS FORBIDDEN wash rice before cooking risotto! Wash the starch!

2) The taste of the risotto depends on the taste of the broth. Best or veal broth. They are the most neutral in taste. For seafood risotto, you can use fish.

The broth, before adding to the risotto, should always be hot. It must be brought to a boil and kept on low heat or just in a warm place.

The hot liquid aids in the extraction of starch from the grain of rice. And the cold liquid shocks the already heated rice, and the starch coagulates, which prevents the correct creamy consistency.

3) Passerovka: Onions are part of almost every risotto. It must first be fried, extracting aroma and sweetness from it. Sometimes garlic is also added.

4) Additives:meat, fish and seafood, mushrooms are mainly added at the first stage of preparing risotto. It must be taken into account that the additional product must have a relatively short cooking time in order to be cooked along with the rice. On average, the dish is prepared in 20-25 minutes. Delicate additions such as small shrimp, green peas, asparagus tops should be added when the rice is half cooked.

5) Cheese: in Italy, Grana Padano cheese is traditionally added to risotto, and Parmesan is served grated to the table for sprinkling.

For the simplest classic risotto:

For 2 persons:

200 grams of rice
1 l. broth
1 small onion
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
100 ml dry white wine

For mantecature:

40 grams of cold butter, cut into cubes
50 grams of hard grated cheese (preferably Parmesan or Grana Padana)

Steps for making risotto:

1) Soffrito or sauté: on olive, cream or a mixture of both, over low heat, finely chopped onion is fried. Add garlic if you like. The onion should soften and not brown. At the same stage, additions are added: meat cut into pieces, mushrooms, some vegetables and seafood.

2) Tostatura or roasting: at this stage, increase the heat to medium, add rice and stir vigorously. Each lynx should be wrapped in oil and fried. Thanks to this procedure, the rice absorbs the aroma of frying, warms up and keeps its shape throughout the cooking. The stage ends with the pouring of wine. The acidity of the wine balances the taste of the starchy dish. Stir the rice vigorously until the wine has completely evaporated.

3) The stage of direct preparation of risotto: When the wine has evaporated, add ladle after ladle of broth. You interfere. You need to interfere, if not all the time, then at least often. Stirring accompanies the release of starch, uniform cooking and absorption of liquid by rice. So the rice should reach the stage of al dente (by the tooth). The rice should be firm and the consistency should be thick enough, but not too thick. Remove rice from heat, set aside for 1-2 minutes.

Amazing velvety taste and delicate texture of a rice dish prepared in a truly Italian way - that's what chefs offer us, sharing the secrets of cooking and recipes for classic risotto. This article will tell you about the best traditional options for the dish.

A bit of history

There are many legends and conjectures about in which city, how and when risotto was first prepared, which conquered all the world's gourmets. His considered to be an original Italian dish, but historians assure that the roots come from Arabic cuisine and originate in the XI-XII century.

Today it is difficult to get to the bottom of the truth, but if you adhere to the opinion of most culinary specialists, then the first variation of the dish arose quite by accident… The allegedly forgetful cook put rice soup on the stove, and, distracted for a while, did not notice how all the water boiled away, and the vegetables went through the aroma of spices and vegetables.

After a while, in 1570, the famous culinary guru Bartolomeo Scappi wrote down more than 1000 original risotto recipes in his cookbook!

The history of the popular yellow risotto is no less interesting. A Milanese legend says that the apprentice who painted the Duomo temple always added saffron to his paints. At the wedding of his master's daughter, he played a joke on the guests and added saffron to the rice dish.

At first, everyone present was afraid of the unnatural color of rice, but after trying it, they came to the conclusion that this the tastiest they've ever tasted.

Choice of tools and ingredients

This dish is quite difficult to prepare even for masters who know a lot about their business. For cooking a heavy cast iron skillet works best, a container for decoction of vegetable broth and a ceramic spatula for stirring all the ingredients.

Cast iron heats up beautifully and gives off heat well, allowing rice not only to fry, but to languish without releasing useful substances and a charming aroma.

As you can see no special tools required. In most cases, the necessary is in the kitchen of a modern housewife.

The main ingredient of any risotto is rice. The secrets of his choice are simple. Perfect fit round grain variety rich in starch, since it is he who contributes to the velvety structure of the dish.

It is worth paying attention to varieties vialone nano, arborio or carnaroli This is the perfect rice for risotto. In their absence, any other round-grain rice is fine.

Options

There are thousands of variations of this dish, and each of them requires its own special ingredients. Consider the most popular recipes that have found recognition in all countries of the world and won the hearts of culinary masters.

With seafood - "Marinara"

This dish requires the following ingredients to prepare:

rice 100gr.;
extra virgin olive oil 20g;
squid 50 gr.;
boiled octopus 50 gr.;
mussels 120 gr.;
sea cockerels 100 gr.;
fish broth;
selected shrimp (without a head) 13-15 pieces;
tomato sauce 15g.;
dry white wine 40 ml;
parsley;
salt and pepper to taste.

To start fry until browned all available seafood along with herbs in heated olive oil. Add rice and sauté over low heat for two minutes.

After Pour in the wine and wait for it to evaporate. Pour in the fish broth in parts, and then add the tomato sauce.

Rice is brought to full readiness, and then laid out on a plate and generously decorated with any seafood and herbs. Shrimps or clams are best for decorating marinara.

How to cook risotto at home with seafood (with shrimp, mussels, squid) in a creamy sauce - see the recipe on the video:

With cheese and mushrooms

According to the recipe for another popular version of risotto - with cheese and porcini mushrooms or champignons - You will need the following ingredients (for 1 serving):

rice 100gr.;
onion 15 gr.;
parmesan 30 gr.;
extra virgin olive oil 20g;
butter 10g;
a little mushroom broth;
mushrooms 100gr. (white is best, but champignons or chanterelles are also suitable);
bunch of parsley;
a few tablespoons of cognac;
salt and pepper to taste.

First, fry the mushrooms in hot olive oil, add the onion to them, and after a few minutes, the rice itself. Sauteing all ingredients should take no more than 3-4 minutes.

After removing from heat, sprinkle the dish with grated cheese and add a piece of butter. Arrange the mushroom risotto beautifully on a plate and garnish with finely chopped parsley.

How to cook a delicious risotto with mushrooms and cheese at home according to a different recipe - see the video:

Find out also the most popular: you will have something to please your guests!

Recipes for making delicious lasagna can be found in this.

Can you make Italian cheese yourself? Find out how to do it from the material with the recipe for making mozzarella at home:

with minced meat

For this dish you will need:

rice 130 gr (preferably arborio);
red onion 1 pc.;
Bulgarian pepper (multi-colored, half red and green);
ground beef 350 gr.;
1 large carrot;
1 tsp tomato paste + 1 tomato;
butter and olive oil for frying;
grated parmesan to taste;
chicken broth 500-600 ml;
salt and pepper.

You can supplement the dish with a small amount of dry red wine.

Cut vegetables into small cubes, pour them into a preheated pan and fry over low heat for no more than 3-4 minutes. After the appearance of a golden crust, add the minced meat to the vegetables and cook for another 3-4 minutes.

Then add chicken broth. After the broth has evaporated, pour in some wine and let it evaporate. Add tomato sauce, pepper and salt to taste. Everything together should cook for about 10 minutes., and then feel free to add rice and cook until al dente.

After removing the dish from the heat, sprinkle everything with parmesan and fresh herbs, add butter and serve.

How to properly serve?

The most popular way to serve risotto, which can be found in all restaurants, is laying it out a small round slide on a plate and garnish with parmesan, herbs, etc.

This is a very hearty dish, especially when it comes to risotto with seafood, meat, mushrooms. That's why serve it in small portions, carefully laying out on a large round plate.

So that the "slide" does not fall apart, use special split molds for serving(they can be replaced with small deep bowls or bowls), where the dish is initially placed, and then placed on a plate and the mold is carefully removed. After that, it remains only to correct the edges and decorate the culinary masterpiece.

To make the risotto look more appetizing, in addition to decorating with grated parmesan and herbs, you can use fried plates of mushrooms, clams or mussels.

Remember that risotto should be served immediately after it is cooked. This dish is not served cold!

Best to use parmesan cheese or grana padano, but if this is not at hand, then the choice must be stopped on hard cheeses, for example, emmental;

After preparation, add some butter to the dish which will make it more appetizing and juicy.

By following these simple tips, you will prepare an unusually tasty dish at home. And you should not rush: risotto can't be rushed! Don't try to "hurry" him up by turning up the heat under the pan. Only strict adherence to all stages of preparation will give the desired result.

In contact with

There are hundreds of risotto recipes, some of them are simple and incredibly complex. But learning how to cook risotto is better on the example of the simplest and most classic recipe.

So we are preparing Milanese risotto.

We will need broth, rice, cheese, dry white wine, butter, onions and natural saffron.

Bouillon first

Risotto is ready in 17 minutes. No more and no less, you can check the clock. But this is the case if you have prepared everything else in advance, especially the broth - it takes time, calmness and very high quality ingredients to prepare it.

The idea of the broth underlies the regular cuisine, any French, Italian, or Russian - decent cabbage soup cannot be made without a decent broth.

stock for risotto

The best risotto broth is chicken. It should be cooked in a large saucepan and preferably from a special, soup chicken. you also need good drinking water and a minimum set of vegetables and seasonings - onions and carrots, black peppercorns, a pinch of salt. To this you can add petiole celery, parsley root, green part of leeks, fresh green peas in pods, white peppercorns, juniper, a strip of lemon peel. During the preparation of the broth, you can also pour in a little dry white wine. And, of course, a bouquet of garni, composed according to the season. The preparation of the broth takes at least 2 hours, so it makes sense to prepare it for the future and store it in the freezer in bags for freezing ice.

Which chicken to choose
Soup chicken is sold in any decent market. If you decide to fry or stew it, then make sure that the finished meat is unsuitable. But the broth from such a bird is what you need. During the cooking time, the soup chicken gives all the best and is no longer suitable for anything. If you want to save money without losing quality, cook the remaining 3-4 chicken remains after cutting off the attractive parts.

Water for risotto is important. Actually, she is the broth. Do not waste time on trifles and buy a canister of good drinking water.

Salt. It must be added very little, the broth must remain generally unsalted, otherwise the dish will be difficult to properly salt. Sea salt is better to take, it is tastier than usual.

Bouquet garni- just sprigs of seasonal spicy greenery tied with cotton thread in a bay leaf. The thread can be tied to the handle of the pan, and at the right time, removed in one motion.

The simplest, "small" bouquet of garni - 3 sprigs of parsley, 3 sprigs of thyme, 1 sprig of celery greens and 1 bay leaf. For seafood risotto, you can add a sprig of dill, and for chicken risotto, 3-4 leaves of tarragon.

Vegetables and roots. Should be clean and not sluggish.

How to cook stock for risotto?

Wash the chicken thoroughly, cut into pieces, put in a saucepan and pour cold water with a pinch of salt. Chicken carcasses can be placed in a very hot oven for 5 minutes, and then folded into a saucepan and poured with water. The resulting broth will have a richer taste and a golden color. Lightly crush the peppercorns with the flat of a knife blade. Cut carrots and onions in half and put in a dry frying pan heated over medium heat. Cook until burns appear. Put the pot on high heat. As soon as it boils and foam appears, reduce the heat and carefully remove the foam with a slotted spoon. When foaming stops, add vegetables and spices to the pan. Cover and cook with light gurgling for about 2 hours. 30 min. until ready to pour in dry wine, if using, lower the bouquet garni into the broth in the last three minutes. Remove when broth is ready. Strain the finished broth through a sieve, pour into a clean saucepan and cool. Put in the cold for 1 hour, carefully remove the frozen fat.

Rice for risotto

Rice for risotto not everyone is suitable, but only three varieties: arborio, carnaroli and vialone nano. In addition to the fact that the varieties are Italian, they have one more thing in common - they contain two types of starch. The one on the surface of the rice grain is called "amylopectin" and the one inside is called "amylose". Amylopectin is mild and mixes quickly with water to create a creamy and fluid texture. Amylose allows you to cook rice to the state of "al dente", which literally means "by the tooth" - this is when a perfectly cooked rice grain remains a little firm in the very center. God forbid you wash such rice!!!

When buying rice for risotto, pay attention to the packaging and the number of cracked and split grains. Reputable manufacturers often even pack under vacuum in a double layer of polyethylene; the result is a kind of brick, resistant to most blows of fate. Italians sometimes label rice simply as "rice for risotto", without specifying the variety - with a 90% chance there will be arborio inside the pack. In addition to these, there are many varieties of rice in the world suitable for making risotto.

Cheese for risotto

Cheese for risotto you need a little, but it should be good.

The main requirement is that the cheese must belong to a small family of grana cheeses. There are only three such cheeses: Parmigiano Reggiano, also called Parmesan, Grana Padano and the very rare Trentingrana. But experiments are also possible. At the same time, it is important to remember that risotto is primarily a rice dish, and cheese should only accompany its taste, and not conduct it. Italians in risotto with seafood or fish, as a rule, do not use cheese.

Wine for risotto

To prepare a large risotto pan, you need about half a glass of dry white wine. There are, in fact, two requirements for it - it must be dry and inexpensive.

Butter for risotto

Good creamy oil for risotto no less important than cheese. Because it is what turns the creamy texture of risotto from a figure of speech into reality. Risotto is a dish of the Italian North, where there have never been olive trees. Only cows.

Onions for risotto

Use white or yellow onions for risotto. Don't be too frugal - the base of the onion must be cut ruthlessly, so that only the juicy onion flesh gets into the risotto. It should be cut very, very, very finely, because there is nothing worse than a ridiculously large piece of onion, in the delicate texture of this dish.

Saffron for risotto

One of the most expensive spices in the world, 1 gram costs more than 10 dollars. You should buy saffron, packed in a factory way, preferably not ground. The idea of going to the nearest market and buying half a glass of saffron is a bad idea, believe me. One gram is enough for 40 servings of risotto. Take a couple of pinches of saffron, put it in a glass and pour hot broth over it. Leave on for half an hour. The resulting orange infusion is exactly what you need.

How to cook risotto

First, put a pot of broth on a gentle fire so that it boils slightly.

The first stage - preparing the soffritto - bases for rice and everything else. You heat oil in a frying pan, add onion - as well as other vegetables used - and fry the whole thing over medium heat until the onion is soft and translucent, but by no means fried. Remember, it should lose color, not change it.

The second stage is called "tostatura". You pour the rice into the pan in one quick swirl, stir it in with the onion and oil, and cook for about 30 seconds. Ideally, all the rice should be soaked in oil so that the outside of the rice darkens, but the core remains white. When this happens, pour in the wine, stir, and continue cooking, stirring constantly, until the smell of alcohol is gone - or until all the liquid has been absorbed.

The third stage - adding the broth to the risotto. Once the rice has absorbed the wine, start adding the hot broth. Take a ladle, scoop up the broth and pour it in a quick circular motion into the pan with the rice. Take a large, preferably wooden spoon or spatula and mix the broth with the rice with it. Repeat mixing after thirty seconds. Repeat in the same vein until almost all the liquid is absorbed into the rice. Pour in a ladle of broth again and start stirring again. As a result of this constant stirring of rice with boiling broth, the outer starch is separated from the rice grains.

When the rice is about half done, and about half of the broth is also left, add the main, title ingredient to the risotto. In the case of Milanese risotto - just the same glass of broth with saffron. Then continue adding broth and stirring. In other recipes, it can be mushrooms, seafood, and more. After 17 minutes of stirring and adding, remove the pan from the heat and leave it perfectly still for exactly 1 minute. After this, it will be time for the last stage, called "mantecature", when cold and diced butter and grated cheese are added to the risotto, and the entire resulting mass is quickly mixed until completely homogeneous. Then the risotto is laid out on warm plates and instantly served to the table.

Unanswered questions

Two questions remain unanswered: What is the correct ratio of rice to broth? When should risotto be seasoned?

Here are the answers to them.

The perfect ratio of rice and broth- for every 100 grams of rice, you need to take 500 ml of broth. It should also be borne in mind that it is best to prepare risotto with 400 grams of rice and 2 liters of broth, which makes 4 large portions or 6 small ones; this amount is just enough for a large frying pan. Almost impossible to make 1 serving of risotto (you'll have to chase the rice around the pan, which will burn every minute) and very difficult - 10 servings at a time (in this case, cooking will be more like rowing). If you need to cook more than 4 servings of risotto, just take another pan.

Season the risotto with salt and pepper First of all, you need to be very careful, since the cheese used in cooking already contains a significant amount of salt, which, in principle, may be quite enough - for example, if the cheese is very aged. However, once the mantecature of the risotto is complete, it is a must try - if it seems to you that you need to add salt and pepper, add them, quickly mix again and serve the risotto to the table.

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Risotto with mushrooms and chicken

A bit of history

Choice of tools and ingredients