Risotto: The Basic Recipe

Risotto is Italy’s unique contribution to rice cookery. At its most basic, risotto is rice toasted in a flavor base of sautéed onion, then simmered in broth added ladleful by ladleful. When the rice is cooked, it is vigorously stirred with grated cheese (and sometimes butter) into a creamy and delicious mound.

Risotto is one of the most versatile of dishes. It may be even more versatile than pasta. You can use almost anything—meat, fish, shellfish, vegetables and even fruit—to flavor a risotto. To name just a few: pureed shrimp, bone marrow and saffron, Belgian endive, asparagus, pumpkin and yes, even fruits like strawberry or cherry. Indeed, it’s a great way to use up spare vegetables and other bits and pieces of leftovers.

But before we get into the fancy stuff, let’s take a look at the basic recipe:

Ingredients

per person:

• 1/4 onion, chopped or finely sliced
• Butter and/or oil
• 70-80g (1/3 to 1/2 cup) rice for risotto (see Notes)
• White wine
• 250ml (1 cup) broth, preferably homemade meat or vegetable broth, or as much as you need

Directions

Step 1: Make a soffritto. 

You begin by gently sauteeing chopped or finely sliced onion in butter and/or or oil. (Adding a pinch of salt and a drop of water softens the onions as they cook so they don’t burn.)

Step 2: Toast the rice

Add the rice and let it ‘toast’ in the soffrito for a few minutes, until the grains turn chalky white. Take care not to brown either the onion or the rice.

Step 3: Add wine. 

Add a splash of wine—almost always white, but red is possible in a few instances. For a very special risotto, you can use champagne. Let the wine evaporate.

Step 4: Add broth 

In a separate saucepan, bring your broth to just below the simmer. Now add the hot broth, ladle by ladle, allowing each ladleful of hot broth to evaporate before adding the next. Stir from time to time. (There are some cooks who say it’s only necessary to stir when adding the broth.) Repeat until the rice is ‘al dente‘, which should take around 20 minutes.

Step 5: La mantecatura

When the rice is cooked, take the risotto off heat. Add a generous amount of grated parmesan cheese and, if you like, a bit of butter. Stir vigorously until the rice reaches as uniform, creamy consistency.

Step 6: Rest (Optional) 

You should normally serve your risotto immediately. But for a firmer risotto, you can cover and let it sit for a minute or two.

The Soul of the Risotto: The Rice

Essential for a successful risotto is to choosing the right kind of rice. Here, there is simply no substitute for Italian imports, in my estimation, to produce a truly creamy but not stodgy risotto. The creaminess of a good risotto comes from the quality of the rice and how it reacts to that final mantecatura rather than actual cream, which, with a few exceptions, is not something you want in your risotto.

The Big Three

The most common varietals are Arborio, Carnaroli and Vialone Nano. The latter two are more expensive (and can be harder to find) but are far superior to Arborio in my book. Carnaroli is considered the ‘king’ of risotto rices. It has a high starch content that produces a wonderfully creamy, relatively compact risotto. Vialone Nano from the Veneto region is preferred for making a loose risotto all’onda in the Venetian style. It has wonderful absorptive qualities but is nearly impossible to overcook.  (For more about compact vs. loose risotto, see below).

Alternatives

If you’re living in the US, I don’t recommend using American-grown Arborio rice. I’ve tried it, and it just does not give satisfactory results. I’ve also occasionally used Spanish bomba rice, used in making paella, with good results. Avoid long grain rice, however. It may taste good, but your dish will not be a risotto. Only a short or medium grain rice will give you that creamy, undulating texture that defines a proper risotto.

Back in the bad old days before Italian rices were widely available outside Italy, some Italian cooks abroad would resort to parboiled rice to make risotto. It was a passable substitute but nothing like real risotto. Use it if you must but even domestic Arborio would be a better choice.

Flavoring Your Risotto: The Condimento

Following the above recipe, you’ll have made the most basic of all risotti, risotto in bianco or ‘white risotto’. Most risotti, however, are flavored with some other ingredient referred to in Italy as the condimento. As mentioned above, the condimento could almost anything—a vegetable, fruit, meat or fish. Or some combination thereof. Typically the ingredient is finally chopped or diced or even puréed so it disintegrates into and flavors the rice, though there are some exceptions.

When to add the condimento

More often than not, the condimento, cut into small dice or thinly sliced, is added to the soffrito and gently sautéed for a few minutes so the flavors meld. Then you add the rice and proceed from there.

But when the flavoring element is particularly delicate, you may want add it while the rice is cooking. You do this with peas or some seafood, for example. You may even add the condimento at the very end, just before the mantecatura. In this case, the condimento is sometimes cooked separately before being added to the rice.

Finally, a fully cooked condimento can also be laid on top of the risotto, as a kind of garnish. In this case, the ingredient is often left whole.

These techniques aren’t mutually exclusive. It’s not unheard of for some of condimento to be added at the beginning, more before the mantecatura and yet more held back for use as a garnish.

How much to add

You have a great deal of flexibility when decided how much condimento to add your rice. Anywhere between a 1:1 to a 1:2 ratio by weight of condimento to rice will work, depending on the condimento and how emphatic you want to flavor the risotto.

I tend to use less meat, for example, than vegetable, or the risotto will become too heavy. You can use more of foods that tend to reduce while cooking, in particular leafy vegetables. Very strongly flavored foods like pancetta or saffron, of course, do not follow this rule. Add just enough to lend flavor.

Simmering the Risotto: The Broth

One of the unique features of the risotto—the thing that distinguishes it from a pilaf, for example—is the way you cook your rice by adding liquid by the ladleful and letting it absorb before adding more. The quality of this liquid will go a long way to making your risotto sing. So whenever you can, it’s best to use homemade broth.

The broth can be meat-based or, especially when the condimento is a vegetable or in bianco, a vegetable broth. For seafood risotti, a fish broth is, of course, an excellent choice. On the other hand, you may find it interesting that Italians will rarely use chicken broth in risotto. And more recently Milanese chef Davide Oldani has popularized making risotto with just well salted water.

Whatever liquid you choose, you should bring it to just below the simmer in a separate saucepan before adding it to the rice. And keep it hot throughout the process.

And here’s another dirty little secret: although risotto will always taste better with homemade broth, if you are using a truly flavorful condimento, you can get away with using commercial broth or even water and a bouillon cube. (Shhh….!)

Pacing your simmer

Whatever hot liquid you use, the main trick for a successful risotto is the proper regulation of the heat. Cook it too fast and the inside of the rice grains will turn out chalky. Cook it too slow, and you will wind up with a stodgy mush… You want a constant but gentle simmer.

Finishing Your Risotto: The Mantecatura

The last step in making a risotto, known as the mantecatura, may be the most important. Vigorously stirring the cooked rice, usually with butter and grated cheese, is what gives risotto its characteristic creamy texture.

There are some variations at this stage. Although some would call it heresy, for a few risotti, especially those using slightly bitter winter vegetables like radicchio or Belgian endive, I like to add cream (still on heat) and let it reduce before proceeding with the cheese (off heat). And a friend of mine from Milan told me that she liked to add—believe it or not—Philadelphia cream cheese in addition to the parmesan cheese to finish the dish.

For seafood risotti, you usually do not use butter or cheese at the end (it is a fairly strict rule for Italians not to mix seafood and aged cheese), but some cooks add olive oil instead to finish the dish. Personally, however, I don’t object to cream, cheese and/or butter in a shrimp risotto.

Consistency: Compact vs loose risottos

Risottos can be compact—stagno in Italian—or loose aka all’onda, depending on your taste (and in Italy on the region—see below.) If you like your risotto compact, make sure the final ladeful of broth is fully absorbed before you proceed to the mantecatura. And/or, as mentioned above, let the risotto rest before serving. If, like me, you like it all’onda, then add a final half ladleful of broth just before taking it off heat. And if it’s still too stiff, add more liquid during the mantecatura stage.

Serving your risotto

There are two schools of thought about serving risotto. There is the traditional way, where you serve your risotto in a shallow bowl, the kind you would use for pasta. If your risotto is firm or stagno, then this is the way to go. More recently it’s become de rigueur to serve a risotto on a flat plate. (See photo above.) You prepare your risotto all’onda then place a mound of the cooked risotto in the center of the plate. You gently shake the plate so the rice spreads across the entire bottom of the plate.

The choice is yours, of course. But the flat plate makes for a more visually pleasing presentation. That’s especially true if you wish to serve your condimento as a garnish on top of the risotto.

The saucepan

While you can make a risotto is just about any kind of saucepan, I find it best to use a braiser or sauté pan, or a so-called saucier. Copper pans are traditional, but stainless steel or aluminum work as well.

The sides should be of medium height: high enough so that the rice doesn’t fly around during the rigorous stirring in the mantecatura stage but low enough so stirring isn’t awkward. The pan should also be wide enough so that the rice can spread out in a fairly thin layer across the bottom of the pan to allow for prooper evaporation of the cooking liquid.

Cutting Corners: Pressure Cooker Risotto

And now I’ll let you in a little secret. I’m usually too lazy to make risotto the traditional way, adding broth ladle by ladle and stirring for 20 minutes. In fact, you can make a perfectly acceptable risotto in less than half the time using a pressure cooker. Yes, that’s right, a pressure cooker!

You follow the basic recipe until it is time to add the broth. Instead of adding just a bit of broth at a time, add twice as much water as rice per volume. Bring to a full boil, stir well, then cover and bring the pot up to pressure. Once at pressure, lower the heat and cook for about 6-7 minutes. Release the pressure quickly. The broth should have been entirely absorbed or nearly so. If the rice is still too al dente, add more broth and simmer the rice conventionally. If it’s just right, just proceed to finish the dish (mantecare). Since you haven’t been stirring the rice during its simmer, be extra energetic when you stir in the rice to produce that creamy finish.

With the advent of electric pressure cookers, the job is even easier. Just use the risotto function that some cookers have and you’ll turn out a perfectly cooked risotto every time. And the fancier electric pressure cookers have a special function (for Instant Pots, it’s called “Nutriboost”) that simulates stirring, which is perfect for making risotto.)

Origins and Regional Variations

Risotto originated as a northern Italian peasant food. Italy is a major European rice producer. Most production takes place in the Po valley, which runs from Piemonte through Lombardy to the Veneto. (There is a great neorealismo film, by the way, called Riso Amaro, about the hard life of rice farmers in the Po Valley.) It is in this band across the top of Italy that risotto got its start, and where it is still most popular today.

Risotto making does vary a bit by region. In Milan, they make it creamy but fairly firm. Carnaroli is king. By contrast, in the Veneto they often make risotto quite loose. They call their way of making risotto all’onda, or ‘like a wave’, as it should flow into the plate as you serve it. There vialone nano is the rice of choice.

While risotto is an essentially northern Italian dish, you’ll find some risotto dishes southward. One of the classic dishes of Neapolitan cuisine is sartù di riso, a baked risotto timbale with an elaborate filling. And two wonderful risotti often appear on Roman menus. One is risotto alla crema di scampi, made with a puree of sauteed shrimp, and the other risotto nero, made with squid ink. (The latter is actually a Venetian dish, I believe.) Try both next time you’re in Italy, you won’t regret it!

Making risotto ahead

Risotto is famously not a dish that you should make ahead. Indeed, you need to eat it right after it’s ready to serve, as it takes only minutes for a risotto to lose its creaminess.

That said, if you really, really must, you can cook a risotto about half way through ahead of time, then reheat it when you’re ready to serve. (This is what many restaurants do, I’m told.) When you’re ready to eat, add a ladeful of broth to the semi-cooked risotto (it should be very compact) stir to loosen it up. Bring it to a simmer, add more liquid as needed to finish cooking, and then proceed to the final mantecatura.

Using Leftover Risotto

There are various ways to deal with leftover risotto:

• You can make risotto al salto. Form the leftover risotto into a kind of patty then browning it on both side in butter.
• You can make rice croquettes. Form the leftover risotto into balls and then roll them in beaten egg and breadcrumbs before frying them. (You can add a bit of cheese in the middle as if you were making suppli.)
• You can make risotto al gratin. Lay the leftover risotto in a baking dish and top it with grated cheese and dot it with butter, then pop it into a hot (200C/400F) oven for about 20-30 minutes, until warmed through and golden brown on top.

Print Recipe

Risotto: The Basic Recipe

A beginner's guide to making risotto

Total Time30 minutes mins

Course: Primo

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: saute, simmered

Servings: 1

Ingredients

• 1/4 onion chopped or finely sliced
• Butter and/or oil
• 70-80 g (1/3 to 1/2 cup) rice for risotto (see Notes)
• White wine
• 250 ml (1 cup) broth, preferably homemade meat or vegetable broth, or as much as you need

Instructions

• You begin by gently sauteeing chopped or finely sliced onion in butter and/or or oil. (Adding a pinch of salt and a drop of water softens the onions as they cook so they don’t burn.)
• Add the rice and let it ‘toast’ in the soffrito for a few minutes, until the grains turn chalky white. Take care not to brown either the onion or the rice.
• Add a splash of wine—almost always white, but red is possible in a few instances. For a very special risotto, you can use champagne. Let the wine evaporate.
• In a separate saucepan, bring your broth to just below the simmer. Now add the hot broth, ladle by ladle, allowing each ladleful of hot broth to evaporate before adding the next. Stir from time to time. (There are some cooks who say it’s only necessary to stir when adding the broth.) Repeat until the rice is ‘al dente’, which should take around 20 minutes.
• When the rice is cooked, take the risotto off heat. Add a generous amount of grated parmesan cheese and, if you like, a bit of butter. Stir vigorously until the rice reaches as uniform, creamy consistency.
• You should normally serve your risotto immediately. But for a slightly firmer risotto, you can cover and let it sit for a minute or two. If the risotto is too stiff for your taste, stir in a bit of hot water or broth.

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