    
Risotto
 Lobster Risotto
© Paula Trites
When planning a Risotto, allow about 4 ounces (1/3 cup / 115g) per person of uncooked rice if the Risotto is the meal; if it's a starter, allow about 2 oz (1/4 cup / 50 g) uncooked rice per person.
Or, cook way more than you need -- there is a fabulous recipe for leftover Risotto on this site.
There are two ways to make Risotto, and both ways are equally nummy. This is where the Foodie Though Police will have jerked up in their seats; there is only one Accepted method, and anything else is Heresy to them. In fact, the Heretical method (oven-baked) is a great way of cooking Risotto.
Cooking Tips
General tips
Whichever way you cook it, let Risotto rest for a minute or two before serving. Not that you don't need that extra minute or two, anyway, to finish up with other things.
Never rinse Risotto rice before using -- the starch on the rice is there for a reason, that's why you bought that particular kind of rice! It's needed to make the Risotto creamy.
For liquid, you'll need roughly three times as much liquid than rice (measured in volume). Liquid quantities given in recipes for Risotto are always approximate. The amount of liquid actually needed under various conditions, on various days under various phases of the moon, will always differ.
For seafood Risottos, it's usually best to use water. For all other Risottos, it's best to use a "cooking liquid", meaning anything other than straight water: diluted wine (never just wine), juices, but usually stocks. The stocks shouldn't be too strong: beef or chicken stock straight from a can, for instance, would overwhelm the dish. It needs to be a mild-tasting stock. However, if you have used up the quantity of cooking liquid specified by your recipe, and more liquid is needed, then, use water.
Oven baked
Whenever you think of Martha Stewart, chances are "practical" isn't always one of the first words dancing on the tip of your tongue. But Martha Stewart has invented an oven-baked method which produces Risottos just as good as stove-top ones, and frees you up from the 20 minutes of standing over the Risotto pot.
Here's her method, boiled down as it were. You can adapt any Risotto recipe to this method.
Heat your stock. Get your oven preheating to about 425 F (220 C). Place an ovenproof dish** on the burner, heat up your oil or butter, and sauté any of the ingredients to be sautéed. Then toast the rice. All this is per usual.
Measure out 1/3 of the liquid the recipe calls for, and set aside for use at the very end. With your ovenproof dish still on the burner heat, stir in a ladleful of the remaining liquid (which was two-thirds, right?), and stir that until it has been taken up. If the liquid includes wine, then use some of that. Then pour in the rest of the two-thirds all at once, plus any seasonings, and bring to a boil. Then turn off the burner, stir in any remaining ingredients (except save cheese for the very end of the cooking process), cover the dish, whack it in the oven, and bake until all the liquid has been taken up by the rice -- about 25 minutes. Now here's the important part: go iron a shirt for work tomorrow, check your email or simply pour a glass of your favourite tipple and put your feet up. Just before the Risotto is ready to come out of the oven, reheat the 1/3 of the liquid that we had set aside almost to a boil - you can zap it in the microwave for a minute. Remove Risotto from the oven. Stir in enough of the remaining liquid to make a creamy consistency, then adjust taste, add any cheese, let rest for a minute or two, and serve.
**Use a dish or pot which you can use both on the stovetop and in the oven, and that has a cover or can be covered, say, with tin foil. (Most CorningWare, for instance, will do: just check the bottom, if it is stovetop safe, it will say so on the bottom.)
Top of the stove, stirring method
Use a really wide pot or a wide, deep frying pan.
Whatever liquid you use, it always needs to be hot, even just about boiling. Keep it simmering in a pan beside you. Cold liquid will arrest the cooking process and ruin the Risotto. In fact, when starting to make a Risotto, the very first thing to do is start heating your cooking liquid.
The next thing you do is toast the rice, in some butter or oil along with some flavouring such as onion or garlic. Rice is toasted at the start of making a Risotto to develop its flavour. If the rice is toasted quickly, it will stay white. If it is toasted slowly, it will brown and develop a nutty flavour.
You add the liquid a bit at a time, at the very most a quarter of a cup (2 oz / 60 ml) at a time -- a soup ladleful is about the right amount -- and don't add more until that has been absorbed. To see if the last addition of liquid has been absorbed, use your spoon to push the Risotto aside to expose the bottom of the pan, and see how fast liquid floods it again. You really can't just dump all the liquid in at once and have done with it. It doesn't work, no how, no way.
The Risotto is done when the rice is tender to the bite, with still a bit of firmness inside it. This should take no more than 20 minutes from when you started adding the liquid. The whole toasting, cooking and stirring process will take about 45 minutes. You need to be at the stove for pretty much all of that time.
Substitutes
You really can't substitute other kinds of rice, as they won't have enough starch to develop the Risotto.
History
In the 1500s, when the Duke of Milan was getting married (to the daughter of the King of Naples), the Duke's Spanish cousin sent 13 bags of seed rice as a wedding present. At least that's one story (the Spanish part of it is plausible: the Spanish had already been growing rice since at least the 1100s, introduced to it by the Arabs.) Another story has it arriving from China in 1238 and someone just tried growing it and it took off. It was planted in the Po valley (being near to Milan), and it took off owing to the microclimate of the area and the availability of water from the River Po. Some say the irrigation systems were laid out by Leonardo da Vinci; this is probably hyperbole for tour guides to spout, but he certainly designed an irrigation system and watermills for at least one estate at which he was staying.
Literature & Lore
The plural of Risotto is actually Risotti in Italian, but in English you're better off to just say "Risottos".
Also called:  Risotto (Italian)
See Also
Risotto Rice
Other entries for Rice Dishes
Chivda, Cốm Dẹp, Donburi, Etouffée, Hoppin' John, Mochi, Risotto
Other entries for Savoury Dishes
Alfredo Sauce, Béaltaine Caudle, Bouchées à la Bénédictine, Bouchées à la Périgourdine, Chop Suey, Curry, Darioles, Favetta, Fondue, French Fries, Koromo, Pancakes, Pies & Tarts, Pizza, Porridge, Relish Trays, Sandwiches, Soups, Spring Rolls, Sushi, Tenkas, Teriyaki, Timbales, TV Dinners, Yakimono, Zakuska
Other entries for Dishes
Desserts, Dumplings, Ozoni, Salads, Savoury Dishes, Zoni
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