First of all, I would like to you wish everybody a very Happy 2011. I think it’s going to be a good year for us here at Real Italy – and La Chiesa di Santo Stefano is already proving popular with returning and new guests. But as I said in the last newsletter, it is likely to be the last year that it is available for rental – so we’re going to make it the best ever. And that goes for the food too. I am working on new recipes all the time – but as promised, I have written here about lovely Italian risotto. I nearly got sidetracked into writing about roast potatoes – because I worked out a way of making the most delicious ones we had ever had (taking advice from everybody from Jamie Oliver to the Guardian Newspaper – and choosing the best bits from each!) – but decided that isn’t very Italian. So risotto it is!
I have added links to three separate risotto recipes – but to be honest, once you have the basics right you can add anything you want and ring the changes. It’s a very versatile dish, and can be served as a starter or a main course, or also makes an excellent lunch. We even had a savoury strawberry risotto at a restaurant here in Italy during the hot summer months. It was unusual, but quite delicious.
Anyway, in my opinion there are some basic things that you need to get right. First is the choice of the rice. I always use Carnaroli rice. I have always used it in preference to Arborio – but never really knew why I thought it was the best. But thanks to Wikipedia, the truth has been revealed! It has a higher starch content, a firmer texture and a longer grain. It keeps its shape better, and is known as the ‘king of rices’ – so if you have a choice, why use anything else? There is nothing I hate more than soggy risotto that tastes like flavoured rice pudding. I like to feel that each grain of rice is separate, not all mushed up together, and that each grain is bathed in flavour. Of course, that doesn’t mean it should be hard!
The next thing is the stock. I always use Swiss Marigold vegetable stock. We can’t get it here, so it’s one of those things that I have to buy each time I am in England – and if necessary, I have some sent to me. Of course, you could use other stock – but give it a try. It’s easy to find in all major supermarkets.
And then there is the oil or butter argument. I confess to using butter. I think it adds to the soft velvety sauce that bathes the rice grains – but if the thought of that much butter appals you – change to olive oil if you must. And don’t use cheap wine, or wine that’s been open in the fridge for days, and that you wouldn’t drink if your life depended on it. Use something you like!
Now to the recipes. The first of these is a lemon and basil risotto that I use as the basis for adding other things – most frequently garlic and lemon prawns. But it goes well with any sort of fish – we had it last night with parmesan crusted salmon. The recipe provided does include the prawns (and sorry – but it’s in Imperial measures – it’s an old recipe!) – but take them off and serve with some other sort of fish and it will be just as good. You could try pieces of monkfish which you have wrapped in a basil leaf and a small piece of Parma ham and fried in oil – the ham will go crispy and the monkfish will be soft an beautiful inside its basil leaf. Or if wrapping each small piece of monkfish individually is too much hassle, lay a couple of pieces of ham down, put some basil pieces on top and then a whole fillet of monkfish. Roll the lot up and cook in one piece. You could then slice this and lay two or three pieces on top of each portion of risotto.
Next is everybody’s favourite – Red Pepper, Rocket and Goats’ Cheese risotto. This has never failed me yet – and is totally delicious. I would probably buy two types of goats cheese – a soft one which is easy to amalgamate into the risotto, and one with a rind to hold it together when grilling it. But you don’t need to do that. You can buy it all with the rind (and then either cut it off or don’t bother for the bits that are added to the risotto) or you can buy a soft one, and don’t bother putting the grilled slice of cheese on the top. The other thing you could do with this – which would make it incredibly quick and easy – is use bottled red peppers, or for a change you could use sundried tomatoes in oil (cut up quite small). You would have to add these earlier so that the become nicely soft – about 5 minutes before the end.
The last recipe is for a mushroom risotto. Fairly basic, you might think – and it’s certainly easy enough. But add some dried porcini mushrooms (soak them first, of course) and a few drops of truffle oil, and it will transform the dish. You could even serve this as a side dish to grilled meat or sausages.
There are a couple of other things worth mentioning. Before moving to Italy, my favourite risotto without any doubt was smoked haddock and coriander. I don’t know where I got the idea for this dish, but we loved it. I can’t get smoked haddock here, and until very recently I couldn’t get fresh coriander either, so it’s not something that we’ve had recently – but it’s worth thinking about. Just use the lemon and basil recipe (although without either lemon or basil, of course) and five minutes before the end, add some small pieces of fresh smoked haddock (un-dyed – about 300 gm for this quantity of risotto) – it will cook for a few minute in the risotto and be perfect. And then when you are ready to serve, stir in about half a tablespoon full of finely chopped coriander – more if you love it as much as I do.
And finally – parmesan crisps. Nothing goes better with a risotto. According to a chef friend, the most important thing is that you use parmesan from the heart of the cheese – ie don’t include any rind or dried up bits of parmesan. Heat your oven to about 200° and finely grate some parmesan (how much depends on how many crisps you want). Put a piece of silicon paper or other non stick mat onto a baking tray, and place tablespoons of parmesan spaced about by a couple of centimetres. Pat the parmesan down a bit, and put in the oven for only about 3 minutes. It all depends on your oven, but they should be very light golden when you remove them. You can be arty and make them into shapes when they are still hot, or you can just transfer them to a cooling tray to crisp up. When you serve them with your risotto, serve on the side and not on top of the risotto – because they go soggy.
I hope this has provided some inspiration – I think I might focus on a couple of good Italian main courses next – but any ideas or suggestions would be welcome.
To find these, and other recipes from Real Italy – please visit this page of our website, and follow the links to the recipes page. Enjoy your cooking!
