Risotto
Delicious, rich, flavourful and highly flexible Italian rice dish. You can make it with sauteed mushrooms, reconstituted dried mushrooms (save the liquid to add to your stock!), cubed roasted squash, sweet potatoes, spinach, chard, steamed asparagus, scallops, shrimp - whatever you want!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Combine the stock and water in a pot and heat to a bare simmer.
- Heat a heavy skillet under medium heat. Add olive oil and minced onion and season.
- Cook the onion, stirring frequently, for several minutes until translucent.
- Add the rice to the pan and stir to coat each grain of rice in oil. Cook for a few minutes, stirring frequently.
- Add the white wine and stir to mix thoroughly. Keep stirring until the wine has been reduced.
- Now stir in a ladleful of diluted stock and cook, stirring frequently, until it has reduced.
- Now keep repeating the last step until you have used most or all of the stock and the rice is cooked to your preference. (Be sure to taste the risotto from time to time.) Some people prefer their rice to be a bit hard in the centre, while others prefer a softer texture.
- If you run out of stock but need to cook the rice more, you can use hot water.
- When you have about a cup of stock left, add in your optional flavour (mushrooms, squash, etc.) - unless it is a food that easily overcooks, like seafood. In that case, add it at the end, in the following step.
- Once the rice is cooked to your satisfaction, turn off the heat. Stir in the butter and parmigiano until the butter melts, then put a lid on the skillet and give it a minute to set.
Risotto with roasted squash and spinach