How to...Make All Kinds of Risotto
Beginning a series on perfectly creamy, customizable, carby comfort.
Good morning and welcome to my first ever recipe series: Creamy, Perfect 15-Minute Risotto!
Over the next several weeks I'll be sharing my favorite recipes for risotto, as well as a few easy 30-minute vegetable broth recipes.
Today's newsletter is essentially an intro/welcome mat, ending with my basic vegetable stock recipe. Keep your eye on your inbox, because Monday's newsletter will be all about my simple, silky base recipe. It'll be a long one, because there's so much to nerd out about! Once we've talked through the Ins and Outs of the method, we'll be ready to launch into a whole host of variations!
The first time I made risotto was in a college dorm kitchen. I lugged two pans, my tools, and all the ingredients down 3 or 4 flights of stairs and set up shop on the scratched and wobbly table. I remember reading the instructions carefully and feeling terribly confident, only to quickly find myself anxiously texting my mom (on my tiny blue flip phone) about how weird it looked, worried that I was making some mistake.
I don’t remember the recipe I used. I think it involved crumbled sausage. I faithfully added ladle after ladle of hot stock, trying my best to interpret the instructions warning me to simmer the rice enough that it absorbed the liquid, but not so hard that the stock quickly boiled away as steam. If you don’t know what that balance is supposed to look like, it’s a fairly mysterious process to navigate. It took so long that I became convinced that something had gone seriously awry.
The final product was stodgy and thick, but dearie me it was delicious. It was fussy and time-consuming, and even my imperfect results were totally worth it. BUT, it doesn’t matter if it’s worth the time if you simply don’t have the time. I probably made risotto again at some point in the next few years, but my next clear memory of making it isn’t until culinary school many years later.
It’s been 10 years or more since that first gloopy globby glorious bowlful. If you ask me I will firmly declare my love for risotto, and then if you don’t stop me I will launch into my list of Very Correct Opinions on risotto. But, if you’ll be my confessor, I must admit that I rarely make it. I have an embarrassing amount of risotto rice hogging precious cabinet space. I always think I’ll make it and then never follow through.
You may be nodding wisely at me now, agreeing that yes it is very hard to find the time for such a fussy labor of love. But that’s the thing: It’s NOT. It’s actually incredibly easy, and much much faster than tradition likes to tell us!!
Dear, feisty Italian nonne of the world, please don’t gasp at me. Traditionalists seem to enjoy keeping this a secret, but it’s not a very well-kept secret. Risotto can be fast. Risotto can be easy. Italian restaurant chefs know how to speed it up without sacrificing flavor or texture. Serious Eats even has a thoroughly researched piece on it (written by the always delightfully nerdy J. Kenji López-Alt —you can read it here).
Essentially, the secret to risotto is in the natural starches of the rice. To thicken, the starch needs to come to a boil. The same is true of other starches, like cornstarch. Creamy, saucy risotto does not depend on gradually adding liquid, nor does it depend on careful, laborious stirring with an ancient wooden spoon. You need some stirring to knock the rice around and release extra starch, and you need a rapid simmer or boil so that starch will thicken the broth.
Adding broth by the ladleful does, however, allow for repeated concentration of the broth. Each ladle cooks down and concentrates, then is reconstituted with another ladle, which then cooks down, etc. This was essentially how we were taught to make a demi-glace in culinary school—reduce stock, then add more stock, then reduce, add, reduce, add, etc. This prolonged concentration process means that the flavor molecules of the first additions of stock get an extended amount of time lightly caramelizing and developing deeper flavor…I digress.
If the romance of the traditional fussiness appeals for you, by all means! Stand over the steam and meditate on the leisurely process! But if you, like me, would just like to shed the myth of “I can’t” and enjoy perfect risotto on any given weeknight (and USE UP OUR GODDAMN ARBORIO STASHES)… Then let’s cook together!
In the next newsletter I’ll be sharing my go-to base recipe for plain-jane risotto, which can be made with any type of stock, be it store-bought or homemade. However, I find most store-bought vegetable stocks to be very heavy on the carrot, making them too sweet and frequently too overpowering for the dish. Store-bought chicken broth seems a bit more reliable, but if you don’t eat meat or are trying to eat less meat, then I want to make sure you have an easy, weeknight, budget-friendly veggie stock recipe to help you out. Scroll all the way to the bottom of this newsletter for my nice-and-easy 30-minute vegetable stock recipe!
As mentioned above, in the following weeks I’ll be sharing some of my favorite ways to flavor risotto, as well as suggestions on how to pair each recipe into a nicely balanced meal. I’m looking forward to sharing some recent new favorites, like a vibrant beet risotto, as well as some of my old-faithfuls like mushroom-sage risotto, tomato-basil risotto, and a spritely risotto packed with aromatic, tender herbs.
I hope you are as excited as I am to eat a bunch of cheesy carbs!
Quick and Easy Vegetable Broth
A simple and flavorful vegetable broth. Chopping the veggies into small-ish pieces allows for increased surface area, infusing the water with deliciousness much faster than leaving the veg in bigger chunks. If you budget about 10 minutes for prep, then this broth is ready to use in about 30 minutes!
Ingredients
3 large celery stalks, chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
2 medium garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 medium tomato, roughly chopped
5 cups water
1 teaspoon salt, optional
Preparation:
Step 1
Combine all ingredients in a large saucepot, ideally at least 3 quarts. Set over high heat and bring to a boil. Partially cover the pot, then reduce the heat to medium. Cook for 20 minutes, adjusting the heat to maintain a lively simmer. (Partially covering the pot allows for some evaporation, but not too much.)
Step 2
Pour the broth through a fine mesh strainer into a large bowl. Press the solids gently to remove as much liquid as possible, then discard the solids (compost if you can!). You should have about 1 quart of broth.
Note: Salt is optional, but I like to use it. Generally you’re not supposed to salt your broths and stocks, because well-seasoned stocks can end up making many recipes too salty by the time they finish cooking. However, since even “low-sodium” boxed broths still have some salt, I feel it’s a better 1:1 for most recipes to start with a homemade broth that has a bit of seasoning already added.
Looking forward to the series!