Risotto ai quattro formaggi

No doubt you’ve heard of pasta ai quattro formaggi . It’s one of those iconic Italian dishes that has made its way around the world. But like many other such dishes, the versions you’ll find abroad often get lost in translation. That is probably one reason why my fellow foodie Paolo Rigiroli, a native of Milan then living in Canada, adopted it (or rather an ironic misspelling of it) for the semi-satirical name of his blog “Quatro Fromaggio” and Other Disgraces on the Menu: Pretentously fixing Italian food around the world. (More about Paolo in the Notes.)

What you may not have known is that risotto ai quattro formaggi is just as delicious, if not more so, than the pasta. And it’s nearly as easy to make. You simply prepare a very basic risotto in bianco and finish it with a mix of four different cheeses—and lots of them—rather than the usual spoonful or two of grated parmigiano-reggiano.

Truth be told, there’s no real magic about having precisely four cheeses. The great thing about this dish is that you can vary it almost infintely with different mixes of different cheeses. Personally, I like a nice mix of sharp and mild cheeses, equal parts parmigiano-reggiano, taleggio, gorgonzola and gruyère. A few other popular choices are listed in the Notes below.

If you’re a turophile like myself, I have no doubt you’ll love risotto ai quattro formaggi. It’s one of the loveliest ways I know to enjoy the creamy goodness of cheese. And needless to say, pure comfort food.

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 280-320g (1-1/3 to 2 cups) Carnaroli or other rice for risotto (see Notes)
• 1 medium onion, chopped or finely sliced
• white wine
• 1 liter (4 cups) broth, preferably homemade vegetable broth, or as much as you need
• butter

To finish the dish:

• 280-320g (10-11 oz) mixed meltable cheeses, trimmed of their rind and grated or cut into dice (see Notes)

Directions

Melt a good knob of butter in a saucepan, then gently sauté the onion in the melted butter. (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 onion for a few minutes, stirring from time to time, until the grains turn chalky white. Take care that neither the onion nor the rice browns.

Add a splash of the wine. Let the wine evaporate as you stir the rice.

Now add the broth, ladle by ladle, allowing each ladleful of broth to evaporate before adding the next. Stir from time to time. Repeat until the rice is al dente, which should take around 18-20 minutes.

When the rice is cooked, take the pan off heat. Add a half ladleful of broth (or water) and the mixed cheeses and another knob of butter. Stir vigorously until the rice reaches as uniform, creamy consistency.

Serve immediately.

Notes

For detailed instructions and tips on making risotto, see our post Risotto: The Basic Recipe. That said, a few key points to bear in mind when making risotto ai quattro formaggi:

The Rice

There are three kinds of rice used for making risotto: Carnaroli, Vialone Nano and Arborio. While my personal favorite of the three is usually Vialone Nano, which is usually preferred for loose risotti all’onda, for this particular dish I prefer Carnaroli, whose high starch content tends to produce the creamiest risottos. For details, see our post Risotto: The Basic Recipe.

Following the usual rule of thumb, calculate 70g-80g (or 1/3 to 1/2 cup) of rice per person, depending on appetites and whether you’re having other courses.

Finishing the Dish aka la mantecatura

You will have noticed that the risotto is finished by adding the butter and cheeses and stirring the rice vigorously offheat. That’s key since Italians believe (and I agree) that cooking cheeses denatures their flavor.

And as explained in our basic risotto recipe, while risotto can be firm or loose depending on your taste, I would really recommend you go for a loose risotto all’onda to fully appreciate the creaminess of the cheeses. Hence the addition of extra liquid along with the butter and cheeses to finish the dish.

Choice of cooking liquid

Most recipes for risotto ai quattro formaggi call for vegetable broth rather than meat broth. That’s because the flavor of meat is a bit too assertive and would distract from the taste of the cheeses, which should be front and center. I would go for a light, simple vegetable broth containing just the Holy Trinity of onion, carrot and celery, simmered for perhaps 30 minutes.

In fact, you might even want to take a cue from chef Davide Oldani, whose Michelin star restaurant D’O outside Milan is famous for his saffron risotto made with lightly salted water instead of broth. The abundant cheese in this risotto provides plenty of flavor on its own—and this way you can enjoy the pure taste of the cheeses.

The cheeses

Needless to say, the heart and soul of risotto ai quattro formaggi are the cheeses. Popular choices include:

• Parmigiano-reggiano
• Grana padano
• Taleggio
• Fontina
• Gorgonzola
• Provolone
• Emmenthal
• Gruyère
• Toma
• Edam
• Brie
• A spreadable cheese of The Laughing Cow type

As you can see, not all of these cheeses are Italian. Some are mild while others are quite piquant. But what they all have in common is their meltability. The list isn’t exclusive, of course. So don’t be afraid to use others cheeses you like, so long as they melt well. This is a great recipe for using up odd bits and bobs of cheese you might have around, which happens to me quite often in the colder months.

Mixing and measuring the cheeses

Classically, you would use four different cheeses, as the name risotto ai quattro formaggi obviously implies. Personally, I usually go with parmigiano-reggiano and a mild creamy cheese like Taleggio, plus at least one strongly flavored cheese like Gorgonzola and finally a semi-soft Alpine cheese like Emmanthal or Gruyère. But in fact here’s no magic in the number four. Of course, you might want to change the name at that point but the dish will be delicious all the same.

You can just add equal amounts of each of your chosen cheeses. Or vary the ratios if you want to lean into creaminess or piquancy. And as you will have seen, I’ve given quite a range for the amount of cheese, so you can vary according to both how much rice you’re using as well as how cheeesy you want your risotto. Once you’ve made the dish a few times, you’ll get a sense of what you likek but a 1:1 ratio of uncooked rice to cheese is a good place to start.

Prepping the cheeses

It’s best to trim off the rinds, even the edible ones. One of the pleasures of this risotto is its silky smooth creaminess. Finding a bit of rind between your teeth would tend to detract from the experience…

The cheese needs to melt quickly with only the residual heat in the saucepan, so it’s important to grate the harder cheeses like parmigano-reggiano or grana finely, coarsely grate or cube the semi-soft ones like fontina or taleggio. Some very soft cheeses, like a young gorgonzola or brie can be just thrown in small chunks.

Variations

If you like, reserve a few bits of cheese to garnish the top of the risotto. It adds a bit of texture as well as visual interest. Other garnishes could be a sprig of parsley for color (as pictured) or a sprig of rosemary, some chopped chives or ground walnuts.

Although cream if often said to be heresy in risotto making, this is one risotto where some people will add a bit of cream, counting it as one of the four cheeses.

Fruit and cheese are a match made in heaven, as immortalized in the Italian saying “al contadino non far sapere quant’è buono il cacio con le pere“. (See this post for the translation…) So unsuprisingly, it’s not uncommon to add apple or pear to a risotto ai quattro formaggi. Peel, core and cube your fruit, then add it either right after the rice and before adding the broth—in which case it will melt into the rice adding a bit of sweetness or, if you like your fruit to retain its own presence, add it midway or even just a few minutes before the rice is done. Reserve a slice or two if you wish for garnish.

Making ahead and leftovers

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, there are ways to do it. There are also various ways to use leftover risotto: fried in butter, as croquettes or gratinéed. See Risotto: The Basic Recipe for details.

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About Paolo Rigiroli

This post on risotto ai quattro formaggi reminded me of my old foodie friend Paolo Rigiroli. Paolo is a Milan-born software engineer who moved to Vancouver in 2001. When he first moved to Canada he was appalled by what passed for “Italian” food there. You can read the amusing story of his first encounters with Italian food in North America in this article.

Paolo decided to try to do something about the sorry state of Italian cookery abroad. He started his blog “Quatro Fromaggio” and Other Disgraces on the Menu in 2010 with the mission to promote authentic Italian cooking and the combat those “disgraces on the menu”—the misconceptions and distortions that plague Italian cookery outside of Italy.

In addition to his blog, he also launched the “Cannolo Award” to promote English language food bloggers who featured real Italian cooking. Then, from 2013 through 2022, Paolo hosted a podcast called “Thoughts on the Table”. Aptly named as it featured some very insighful and thought-provoking discussions on Italian food.

Needless to say, there are still plenty of “disgraces on the menu” out there. But we’re definitely in a better place today than we were back in 2001. And without a doubt, Paolo’s tireless efforts played a role in raising awareness about what real Italian cooking is all about.

Paolo and I go back to when he honored this little blog with his “Cannolo” Award. I also appeared on his podcast twice, once in 2014 when we received the award and again in 2019 when Memorie di Angelina celebrated its tenth anniversary.

Sadly, Paolo, who now resides in the UK, has retired from podcasting and blogging, but you can still find him on Instagram.