Risotto Alla Milanese
Italian creamy rice with saffron
Equipment
- Casserole For the broth.
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon Saffron
- 7 Shallots
- 1 bunch Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (To taste)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 500 grans Carnaroli rice (17.63 oz)
- Chicken broth 2.5 cups per cup of rice.
- 50 cl White wine Sauvignon blanc is a good option.
- 50 grams butter (3.52 oz)
Instructions
- Prepare the chicken broth in advance (homemade is clearly better for flavor, but stock cubes work fine too). Add the saffron to the hot broth at least 10 minutes before starting to cook—this allows for better extraction of its color, flavor, and aroma.If your broth is already salted, you may not need to add extra salt at all (the Parmesan cheese brings plenty), but taste and adjust as you go.
- About 2½ glass of water for 1 cup of rice is enough, but just in case leave more broth prepared, not all rice are the same.
- Cut the shallots very small in brunoise, that is, very very small cubes or lastly chop them very small the size of the rice.
- Cook the shallots with a little olive oil and very small piece of butter for 2 minutes. When they get barely golden brown, add the rice to the pan (*1), stir a little to mix everything and cook a few minutes (usually less than 3 minutes).
- Add a nice splash of the wine and reduce cooking to medium heat.
- After a few seconds cooking the rice with the wine (never dry out the pan, otherwise the rice sticks and burns) with a ladle, add one ladle at a time, add one and wait for it to cook for 1 minute with that broth. Not too much broth because the rice is washed and not too little because it dries and burns. The rice needs to be covered with water so that it cooks evenly.
- This process can take over medium heat between 20 and 40 minutes, depending on the pan, the heat, the quantities, etc.Every so often taste the rice until until there are two minutes left to be ready.
- When you finally have 1 minute to finish, add the butter. (To taste).
- Stir the rice to mix it with the butter and then add the grated cheese and stir again out of the heat.
- Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- The broth shouldn't be boiling. Just hot so as not to burn the rice and prevent it from releasing its starch
- With each added ladle, you will have to wait longer than the last to add broth.
- The cooking time of this recipe depends on the pan size, the amount of rice and the heat.
Do not take these times exactly. Taste the rice yourself to know how long it takes to cook. - It can be suitable for vegetarians if the chicken broth is replaced by vegetables.
- You can cook ossobuco following this recipe of slow cook meat.
- (*1) In this moment you can add a black garlic clove or two. It's a nice optional touch.
- Rice mainly contains one type of starch called amylose and another type called amylopectin.
To achieve a creamier risotto, you want to release the starch from the outer layer of the rice as it cooks. In this case, it is mainly amylose, since it has the property of gelatinizing and thickening when cooking. Constantly stirring the rice while the risotto is cooking rubs the surface of the rice grains, helping to release the amylose into the cooking liquid. This contributes to the characteristic creamy texture of a good risotto. - Stir the rice constantly. Gently and carefully not to break the grains. This will also help the rice not to stick to the bottom of the pot and cook evenly.