Does anyone have a great risotto recipe to share?

I had the most delish risotto dish last week. I've never had risotto before. It was so creamy & good! It had chunks of butternut squash, some little greens & carmalized walnuts on top. Yum!

It doesn't have to be with squash, just whatever you have that you like.

Thanks!

for cooking risotto is a stool next to the stove. It requires pretty much constant stirring as you continue to add broth to arborio rice.

It's the starchy variety of rice that breaks down as it's cooked and stirred that creates the creamy consistency.

The basic recipe is to saute your veggies (you can't go wrong with mirepois: julienned carrot, onion and finely chopped celery) in oil or a mixture of butter and oil. Use a lot more oil than you'd ordinarily use to lightly saute veggies, up to 1/4 cup for a cup of rice.

Add a cup of arborio rice and lightly saute it with the veggies, until the rice is coated with the oil and the whole business smells a little nutty. Add half a cup of dry white wine and a cup of hot stock. Stir until most of the liquid has either been absorbed or evaporated. Add another cup of stock and repeat the stirring. By the time you get through this one, you should be seeing the creaminess appear. Add a final half cup of stock and stir until nearly everything has evaporated.

You can season this with anything you have. You can use shiitake soaking water as the stock and do a mushroom risotto. You can use garlic and saffron. You can finish it with butter and a little pamesean if you eat dairy foods. This dish is like spaghetti sauce and chili, there are as many recipes as there are cooks.

So basically you have 1/4 cup of fat, 1 cup of rice, 1/2 cup of dry white wine, and 2 1/2 cups of stock plus whatever veggies and seasonings you'd like to use, plus about 20-25 minutes of stirring.

Some people have used regular white rice to make risottos. I haven't had much success with using anything but arborio rice, which most big health food stores, gourmet shops, and quite a few larger supermarkets carry.

Brown rice is unsuccesful because the hull prevents the starchiness from entering the sauce and providing that creamy consistency.

I found the arborio rice at the HFS. Hope to make it this weekend.

Thanks again!

You do have to keep a close eye on it, though. The secrets are:

1. Arborio rice is the only kind that works.
2. The rie needs to be cooked in hot fat for about 1 minute before you start adding the hot broth.
3. Keep the broth (or water) hot on the stove next to your rice pot and add about a half cup at a time as the rice absorbs the liquid.
4. After about 25 minutes, when the rice is tender, take it off the heat and add about 2 tablespoons of butter and a half cup of parmesan cheese.

I've had many compliments on my risotto, for what it's worth.

My partner makes the MOST delicious vegetarian risotto with beetroot, feta cheese, spinach and pine nuts. It's absolutely one of my all time favorite things to eat. The sweetness of the beetroot is met halfway with the salty tang of the feta. Plus, it's absolutely beautiful: bright, bright fuschia, with green and white accents.

You add chunks of beetroot in with the rice from the get go, and stir and stir and stir, then add the spinach close to the end, and the feta and pine nuts at the very end.

Yum! I'm hungry!