The universal Risotto recipe

0. Broth (pan #1):
Prepare some meat broth, either boiling a piece of chicken (can’t be bothered to do this; maybe for Christmas) or by putting a stock in boiling water (preferred option always).

1. Soffritto (pan #2) (literally "under-fried"):
Cut the onion, a carrot and half a celery stick and put them into a big pan with a piece of butter (oil); fry until you see the onion pieces become rather transparent. Don’t burn it.

2. Vegetable/Mushrooms/Sausage:
Most of the ingredients go at this point: add any kind of vegetable (red radicchio for example) or mushrooms you want to put into the risotto. This is also the good moment for putting sausage (or pork mince, speck, non-smoked bacon…). Stir so that everything takes the taste from the soffritto and the vegetable lose their water.

3. Rice:
At this point add rice, about 70 grams per person plus 70 for the pan (this is what they say). So about 250 g for two people. Stir quickly so that the rice doesn’t stick to the pan. Buy Italian rice (e.g. Gallo), or any rice except parboiled/pilaf/Indian/Chinese rice. These last ones remain stiff, while you want a kind of rice which swells in water to make the creamy effect.

4. White wine:
Shortly after the rice, add some white wine. The pan should be so hot that the alcohol evaporates almost immediately. Stir the rice with the wine, so that it takes the taste of the wine.

5. Broth:
As soon as you see that the wine is gone, start adding broth in small quantities. You should just cover the rice with a thin layer of broth. Then stir, stir, slowly stir…. You can also add more broth altogether if it is late or you are fed up with stirring, but if you put all of the broth at the same time the result is not so creamy… I think this phase should take about 20 minutes.

6. Saffron/Cream/Cheese (optional):
Taste the rice (you will see it grow) and when it is almost ready, stop adding broth, add the Saffron (if it a yellow risotto you want to make) or the cream; I usually buy the saffron in powder, rather than the small leaves, it is easier to use.

7. Butter:
This is a fundamental step. Remove the pan from the hob, add a big piece of butter (no oil option available here) and stir until it melts completely in the hot risotto. Can you see the cream?

8. Parmesan:
Here comes the glorious moment of the parmesan, this gives risotto most of the taste. The parmesan also makes the risotto a bit drier, so just make sure that when you stop adding the broth at step 6 it isn’t already completely dry. This also depends on how you like it: I like it a little bit more liquid, so I usually leave some more broth. With time you will adjust the recipe according to your taste.

Enjoy!!!

Some classic ingredients combination:
sausage/ saffron; mushrooms/saffron; red radicchio/speck; red radicchio/speck/smoked cheese (like provola/scamorza); courgettes/non-smoked bacon; …………….

Suggestions are welcome!