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

So we prepare risotto in Milanese style.

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

Broth first

The risotto takes 17 minutes to cook. No more and no less, you can check the clock. But this is in the event that 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 ​​broth is at the heart of regular cuisine, any French, Italian or Russian - decent cabbage soup cannot be made without a decent broth.

Risotto broth

The best broth for risotto 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 stalked celery, parsley root, green leeks, fresh green peas in pods, white peppercorns, juniper, a strip of lemon zest. During the preparation of the broth, you can also pour in a little white dry wine. And, of course, a bouquet of garni, made according to the season. It takes at least 2 hours to prepare the broth, so it makes sense to cook it for future use and store it in the freezer in ice freeze bags.

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 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 else. 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, it is the broth. Don't waste time on trifles and buy a can of good drinking water.

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

Garni bouquet- just twigs of seasonal spicy herbs tied with a 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 and 1 bay leaf. For risotto with seafood, you can add a sprig of dill, and for risotto with chicken - 3-4 leaves of tarragon.

Vegetables and roots. Must be clean and not sluggish.

How to cook risotto broth?

Wash the chicken thoroughly, chop it into pieces, put in a saucepan and pour cold water with a pinch of salt. Chicken carcasses can be placed in a very preheated oven for 5 minutes, then folded into a saucepan and covered with water. The resulting broth will have a more intense flavor and golden color. Lightly crush the peppercorns with the plane of the knife blade. Cut carrots and onions in half and place in a dry skillet preheated over medium heat. Cook until scorched. Place the pot over high heat. As soon as it boils and foam appears, reduce heat and carefully remove foam with a slotted spoon. When the foam stops producing, add vegetables and spices to the pan. Cover and simmer for about 2 hours. In 30 min. until ready to pour in dry wine, if used, dip a bouquet of garni into the broth for 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 a grain of rice is called amylopectin, and the one on the inside is called amylose. Amylopectin is soft and quickly mixes with water to create a creamy and fluid texture. Amylose allows you to cook rice to a state of "al dente", which literally means "by a tooth" - this is when a perfectly cooked grain of rice remains a little hard in the very center. God forbid you to 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 of the blows of fate. Italians sometimes label rice simply as "rice for risotto", without specifying the variety - with a 90% probability there will be arborio inside the pack. In addition to these, there are many varieties of rice in the world that are suitable for making risotto.

Risotto cheese

Risotto cheese it needs a little, but it has to be good.

The main requirement is that the cheese must belong to the 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. It is important to remember that risotto is primarily a rice dish, and cheese should only accompany its taste, not lead it. Italians, as a rule, do not use cheese in risotto with seafood or fish.

Wine for risotto

A large frying pan of risotto requires about half a glass of dry white wine. There are, in fact, two requirements for it - it must be dry and inexpensive.

Risotto oil

Good creamy butter for risotto no less important than cheese. Because it is it that turns the creamy consistency 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.

Risotto onion

Use white or yellow onions for risotto. Do not be too economical - the base of the onion must be cut mercilessly, so that the extremely juicy onion pulp gets into the risotto. It should be chopped very, very, very finely, because there is nothing worse than an absurdly large chunk of onions 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. 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, place in a glass and cover with hot broth. Leave on for half an hour. The resulting orange infusion is exactly what you need.

How to make risotto

To begin with, put a saucepan with broth on a low heat so that it boils weakly.

The first step - making the sofrito - bases for rice and everything else. You heat the oil in a skillet, add the onions - as well as the other vegetables you use - and sauté the whole thing over medium heat until the onions are soft and translucent, but not crispy. Remember, it should fade, not change.

The second stage is called "toastatura"... You pour the rice into the skillet - in one quick circular motion, toss it 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 and the core remains white. When this happens, pour in the wine, stir and continue cooking, stirring continuously, until the smell of alcohol disappears - or until all the liquid is absorbed.

The third stage is adding broth to the risotto... Once the rice has absorbed the wine, start adding the hot broth. Take a ladle, scoop the broth and pour it in a quick circular motion into the rice pan. Take a large, preferably wooden spoon or spatula and stir the broth and rice with it. After thirty seconds, repeat the stirring. Repeat this process until almost all of 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 external starch is separated from the rice grains.

When the rice is about half cooked, and about half of the broth remains, add the main, title ingredient to the risotto. In the case of Milanese risotto, that very glass of saffron broth. Then continue adding broth and stirring. In other recipes, it can be mushrooms, seafood, and more. After 17 minutes of stirring and topping, remove the pan from the heat and leave it in perfect rest for exactly 1 minute, after which it will be time for the last step, called "Mantekatura", when cold and diced butter and finely grated cheese are added to the risotto, and the whole mass is quickly kneaded until completely homogeneous. Then the risotto is laid out on warm plates and instantly served on the table.

Unresolved issues

Two questions remain unclear: to What is the correct ratio of rice to broth? and when should the risotto be seasoned?

Here are the answers to them.

Ideal ratio of rice to 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 is 4 large portions or 6 small ones; that amount will fit in a large skillet. It is almost impossible to cook 1 serving of risotto (you will have to chase rice in the pan, which will strive to 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 use another pan.

Season the risotto with salt and pepper First of all, you need to be very careful, since the cheese used in the preparation already contains a significant amount of salt, which, in principle, may be quite enough - for example, if the cheese is very mature. However, after completing the mantekature, the risotto must be tried - if the result seems to you that you need to add salt and pepper, add them, quickly stir again and serve the risotto to the table.

Cheese risotto is a great meal for the whole family to be served for lunch or dinner. Any cheese is suitable for risotto, an interesting taste of the dish will turn out if you take cheese, for example, with nuts, spices, vegetables or herbs. And this will also affect the appearance. Regarding rice, rice would be ideal for risotto, such as arborio. This type of rice is sticky, easy to boil, because the risotto should have a creamy consistency.

Ingredients

• 1 onion
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 130 g rice
• 15 g butter
• 70 g hard cheese
• 1 tsp salt (no slide)
• 1/5 tsp turmeric
• 300 ml broth
• 50 ml white wine
• 2-3 sprigs of fresh herbs
• 2 pinches of ground black pepper

Preparation

1. The garlic in the recipe is for flavoring, peel and cut into slices. Peel and finely chop the onion.

2. Melt the butter in a frying pan, quickly fry the garlic, then, literally in 3 minutes, remove it from the pan. Then fry the onion over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes.

3. Add risotto rice to the onion.

4. Pour in half of the broth and white wine. Stir and simmer under a closed lid for about 10 minutes. During this time, almost all the liquid is absorbed into the cereal.

5. Pour the remaining stock into the pan, season with salt in the risotto and add the turmeric. Continue simmering for another 15 minutes over low heat under a closed lid.

6. Grate the cheese on a coarse or fine grater. If the cheese melts well, it will only benefit the risotto.

Among all the luxuries available to those who love cheese, perhaps the most luxurious luxury. Well, or so it seems to me now - it's just such a period that I cook it often and a lot, and eat with great pleasure, and treat everyone who comes to visit me, and enjoy, and savor, and rejoice that I can cook awesome! Perhaps it is not the most correct, it is likely that there are options and more interesting, I admit that eminent chefs cook it somehow differently, but for me and at this stage of my culinary development this cheese risotto recipe seems to be just perfect.

- Oh, what did you cook for dinner?
- Rice with ... rice, in general.
- Looks appetizing. What is the name of the dish?
- "Throw away the same!"

Cheese risotto it turns out to be very tender, creamy and, of course, absolutely cheesy. Lovers of Parmesan and Dorblu will understand me. In addition to the taste, it is worth mentioning that risotto is the dish that is being prepared now and now. They don't warm it up, don't make it for future use, don't cook it in tons in advance. Only fresh, only in the heat of the heat. Cheese risotto is something that needs to be mastered, because once mastered, you, like me, will wonder how you used to live without this dish.

Ingredients:

1 cup arborio rice

about 3 cups vegetable broth;

1/2 glass of white wine

30 g butter;

50 g mozzarella;

50 g dorblu;

30 g parmesan;

salt, paprika to taste.

Heat butter in a convenient frying pan with high sides, then add rice and fry until translucent.

Then the process of cooking, in fact, the risotto itself begins: in small portions, pour the broth into the pan and, stirring, cook until the liquid is completely absorbed into the rice. As soon as the groats begin to stick slightly to the bottom, pour in a little more broth, stir, cook, stirring occasionally. Broth again. Soaked in - liquid again. Salt, add, if desired, a little paprika. At the very end, when the rice is almost ready (soft and creamy on the outside and slightly hard in the very center), pour in the wine, stir, wait for absorption, remove from heat.

Immediately add dorblu cut into small cubes and thin mozzarella circles to the pan, mix, put on plates and sprinkle with grated Parmesan.

Incredibly delicious! The cheeses stretch in strings, the risotto pleases with a creamy structure, and all together - a stunning bouquet.