Risotto allo champagne (Champagne Risotto)

Frank29 December 2017Lombardia, primi piatti, Risotto and Other Rice Dishes42 Comments

Risotto allo champagne, or Champagne Risotto, is a simple but elegant first course. It is very much follows the basic recipe for a risotto in bianco but gets its particular charm from the use of Champagne instead of wine. You might think it extravagant to cook with Champagne, but you only use a couple of glasses. And once you open that bottle, you’ll get to finish it off with your dinner guests…

It’s an ideal primo for a New Year’s Eve dinner or a romantic supper for two.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6, as part of a multi-course meal

300-450g (10-1/2 oz to 1 lb) rice for risotto, preferably Carnaroli or vialone nano
2-3 shallots, finely minced
2 glasses of champagne
Vegetable or chicken broth, preferably homemade, q.b.
Butter
75g (2-1/2 oz) Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, grated

Directions

Melt a good knob of butter (perhaps 50g or half a stick) in a large saucepan. Sauté the shallots very gently in the butter for a minute or two, taking care not to brown the butter or the shallots.

Turn the flame up to medium. Add the rice and let it “toast” for a couple of minutes, then add a glass of champagne. Let the champagne evaporate.

Now add a ladleful of broth to the rice. Simmer over medium heat, stirring from time to time, until the broth has been absorbed by the rice. Add another ladleful of broth and repeat for a total of 18 minutes or so. The rice is done when it’s still al dente but without any chalkiness in the center.

When the rice is almost done, add a second glass of champagne and let it evaporate—only partially, like me, you like your risotto quite loose.

Off heat, add the Parmigiano-Reggiano and, if you like, another knob of butter to the rice. Stir vigorously for 30 seconds or so, until the cheese and butter have melted and the rice has developed a nice, creamy texture.

Serve and eat your Champagne Risotto immediately, preferably by candlelight.

Notes on Champagne Risotto

For detailed tips on making risotto, see Risotto: The Basic Recipe. You’ll find notes on the best kinds of rice to use and a short-cut recipe for pressure cooker risotto (which, I have to admit, is the way I usually make risotto these days!)

Vegetable broth is really the best choice here. It’s delicate enough to let the taste of the Champagne shine through and, as I’ve written about before, the New Year’s Eve dinner, or cenone di san Silvestro, is traditionally a meatless meal, just like Christmas Eve. But chicken broth (which curiously is called for in almost all English language recipes for this dish but in almost no Italian ones) will work fine. Don’t use beef broth, which would be too assertive.

You can serve risotto quite firm if you like, with very little liquid left, but this risotto is at its most appealing, I think, served quite creamy, so that it oozes all over the plate. To get this effect, take the risotto off the heat before that last bit of Champagne has evaporated. Or add a bit more Champagne or broth along with the butter and cheese off heat at the end. And serve your risotto right away—the longer you wait, the less creamy the risotto will be.

Variations

If you find Champagne a bit too extravagant for cooking, a good Prosecco or another dry, sparkling white wine will do. The amount of bubbly varies enormously from recipe to recipe. At one end of the spectrum, you can add just the usual glassful at the beginning and leave it at that. At the other end, a few recipes call for simmering the rice entirely in Champagne. (I haven’t tried this but, aside from the expense, I would think the result would be just too acidic for my taste.) Some recipes calls for a middle-way, simmering the rice in ladlefuls of broth alternating with glassfuls of Champagne. I find the technique here, with Champagne at the beginning and the end, is not only relatively economical but also provides a nicely balanced dish. You can definitely taste the Champagne without it becoming overwhelming.

Recipes for Champagne Risotto also vary enormously in the amount of Parmigiano-Reggiano they call for. (And for an elegant dish like this one, you want to real thing, not an Ersatz domestic Parmesan or an everyday Italian grana—although some recipes go for the more assertive provola.) Some recipes call for prodigious amounts of cheese, up to half of the weight of the rice!—at which point you might want to call your creation a risotto parmigiano e champagne, just to be fair. But you do want to be generous in any case. The cheese provides creaminess, savor and balances the acidity of the Champagne.

And if you don’t have shallots, a good old yellow onion do the job.

Garnishes

Champagne Risotto is wonderful on its own, but you can treat it as a kind of culinary canvas for all sorts of garnishes, too. Shavings of Parmigiano-Reggiano for instance, or if you want to be really extravagant, white truffle. Or a sprinkling of minced chives or salmon caviar or pomegranate seeds. Or perhaps some toasted pine nuts or crumbled walnuts for a little crunch. And cooked garnishes like sautéed mushrooms or shrimp are a wonderful complement, too.

Or, if like me you’re mourning the recent passing of the great Gualtiero Marchesi, you might lay a small square of edible gold leaf in the center of your risotto, and shed a tear.

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