Darlings!
Risotto, as your favourite foxy friend was reminded on a recent visit to Milano*, is a delight.
It’s the perfect springtime meal. Lunch or dinner. It’s certainly powered a lot of my recent Food Freedom Fighting activities (perhaps you’ve seen my 🦊 prints in your local purveyor of filthy UPFs….?)
As for those who say it’s a faff to make: stuff and nonsense, darlings.
Stuff.
And.
Nonsense.
It honestly couldn’t be easier. My recipe’s below.
Just promise me that you will please grate the onion, darlings.
Because there really is nothing more certain to ruin la dolce vita than clumsy chunks of onion in one’s risotto.
Ciao,
Reynard x
*it’s not easy being a dedicated follower of fashion, darlings, but this silver fox has certain standards to uphold.
REYNARD’S RISOTTO
Serves 4
Ingredients
250g risotto rice (Susana’s is exquisite, and organic)
1 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp butter
1 onion, grated (darlings, I really cannot stress this enough)
2, 3 or 4 cloves of garlic (à chacun a son garlic goût), also grated
a good slug of vino bianco
1L organic chicken stock
Salt, to taste
1 bunch of asparagus spears, chopped into centimetre long pieces or smaller
Instructions
Sauté base:
In a pan large enough to accommodate 4 times the volume of the dry rice (and some), gently heat the olive oil and 3 tbsp of the butter until the butter has melted entirely. Add your grated onion and watch it dissolve before adding the garlic and cooking it until that too disappears. Crucially, darlings, you don’t want to develop any colour whatsoever on the onions or garlic.
Add rice:
Stir in all the rice and ensure it gets coated with the butter, oil, onion and garlic. Cook for 1–2 minutes until translucent around the edges.
Heat stock:
In a separate pan, heat the stock and keep it hot. A cold stock will stop the rice from cooking, and we really don't want that darlings.
Add liquid:
Pour in the vino bianco, darlings. You want to be cooking out all the alcohol so do turn up the heat a little to encourage evaporation. Once that’s done, turn the heat back down to something rather more gentle and, little by little, begin adding the stock.
Cook risotto:
Keep stirring the rice continuously as you add more stock to ensure an even cook. Only rotters, bounders and cads allow a risotto to boil, darlings, so don’t even think about leaving your station unattended. Keep stirring, adding salt to taste and testing the rice until it’s al dente. (We all need something to bite down on every now and again, darlings.)
Add asparagus:
Stir your asparagus pieces into the rice and allow them to soften very slightly for a few minutes.
Finish:
Add the last remaining 1tbsp of butter and stir it gently into the risotto before covering it and setting it aside for 5 minutes (the perfect opportunity to pour yourself an ice cold glass of that very same vino bianco).
Serve:
The risotto is ready to serve when it flows like the lava of Mount Vesuvius onto the wretched souls of Pompeii. If it doesn't, then add more stock pronto.
And at the final moment do please remember to produce, with huge flair, a theatrically oversized pepper grinder. When in Rome (or at least Milano) and all that....
Buon appetito darlings!