Risotto alla milanese is the signature dish of Milan, capital of the Lombardy region and economic and financial capital of Italy.

Iconic as it may be, the dish is actually quite straighforward to make. You prepare risotto alla milanese much as you would a basic risotto in bianco. But it has two defining ingredients that give it its unique flavor and character. Famously, one is saffron, which lends it a beautiful gold color, as well as its knickname risotto giallo or yellow risotto.

Fewer people know, however, that a traditional risotto alla milanese also includes beef marrow. The marrow lends a beefy background flavor to the dish, as well as a subtle richness and unctuousness. The ingredient is so characteristic of the dish that I have seen it listed on menus in Milan as risotto al midollo. (The word ‘midollo‘ being Italian for bone marrow.)

Risotto alla milanese is commonly served together with ossobuco, as a piatto unico. It’s one of the very few examples of rice serving as a side dish in traditional Italian cookery. But it is equally wonderful on its own as aprimo piatto.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6 people

For making the soffritto:

40-50g (3 Tbs.) butter (plus a bit more for the mantecatura)
40-50g (1-1/2 or 2 oz.) bone marrow, removed from the bone (see Notes) and finely chopped
1 onion or 2 shallots, finely chopped

For toasting the rice:

400g (7 oz.) rice for risotto, preferably Carnaroli or Vialone Nano (see Notes)
A splash of white wine

For the simmer:

1 liter (1 qt.) broth, approximately, as needed
A pinch of saffron threads or two small packets of saffron powder

For the mantecatura:

50-60g (2 oz) grated parmesan cheese, plus some more to serve at table
A good knob of butter

Instructions

Grind the saffron threads in a mortar and pestle, then add warm water or broth. Let infuse for at least 15 minutes, better if longer. (See Notes) If using saffron powder, smply dissolve it in warm water or broth.

Prepare the soffritto

Sauté the onion or shallots and chopped bone marrow very gently in the butter until the marrow has melted and the onion has softened and turned traslucent.

Toast the rice

Raise the heat to medium and add the rice. Let it sauté in the soffritto until it turns a chalky white. Take care that neither the onion or the rice browns.

Add a splash of white wine and let it evaporate.

Simmer the rice in broth

Proceed with the risotto in the usual way, adding a ladleful of broth to the rice and simmering until it evaporates. Then add another ladle at a time, repeating the process until your rice is al dente.

About halfway through the cooking process (or if you prefer a more assertive flavor, about 5 minutes before the rice is done) add the saffron and its soaking liquid. Continue to cook as usual.

The final mantecatura (butter and cheese enrichment)

While the rice is stlll fairly brothy, turn off the heat and add the grated parmigiano-reggiano and a knob of butter.

Stir the rice around vigorously for a minute or two, until the butter and cheese have completely melted into the rice and the rice has developed a creamy texture.

Pour on to a serving dish and serve right away.

Notes on risotto alla milanese

The usual tips on making risotto apply. See our post Risotto: The Basic Recipe for details.

I personally prefer my risotto alla milanese—all risotti if I’m honest—quite loose or all’onda as the Italians call it. But if you like a tighter texture, you can let your risotto rest covered for a minute or two before serving.

Choosing your rice

As for the rice, we’ve covered the three main varieties before, but to recap: Arborio, which is the easiest to find here in North America and usually least expensive of the three, will certainly work. But Carnaroli is the more typical choice. You will also find recipes calling for Vialone nano, which is an excellent risotto rice typical of the Veneto but also grown around Mantova in Lombardy . For details on the different types of risotto rice, check out my post on the Italian Pantry and Risotto: The Basic Recipe.

On Saffron

Saffron, as we all know, it very expensive, but a little goes a long way. It is sold in threads (the stigma of the crocus flower) or ground into powder. For purists, threads are the way to go, but for best results don’t add them directly to the dish. Per the recipe above, grind them first in a mortar in pestle, then soak the resulting powder for at least 15 minutes in hot water or broth. The long the better in fact—some cooks recommend overnight, though that strikes me as overkill.

If you go with store bought saffron powder, do be sure it’s actually saffron. Some powders are plain fake or include extraneous ‘filler’ or substitute ingredients. While less necessary, I find it also helps to dissolve the powder in hot water or broth before adding it, though unlike the threads it doesn’t need soaking.

Bone marrow

All bones have marrow, of course, but there are particular good marrow bones (also often called soup bones) that you can buy sawed in half to expose the marrow.

To prepare bone marrow for use in risotto, I like to simmer the marrow bones for just a minute or two to loosen the marrow a bit. You can also roast it in a hot (200C/400F) oven for say 5-10 minutes. Then, using a small spoon or knife, scrape out the marrow from the bone. Depending on how long you’ve simmered or roasted the bone, the marrow may also just slip out on its own.

Now for those of you who may be a bit squeamish about bone marrow, it can be left out of the dish. I’d recommend adding some additional butter during the mantecatura to make up for it. What you will have made is more properly called risotto allo zafferano rather than a true risotto alla milanese—but it will still be delicious.

Broth

In a risotto as simple as this one, homemade broth is (almost) a must. Traditionally the broth is made from beef, but I actually prefer a slightly lighter broth. made with mix of chicken and beef. Its lighter color also lends a brighter gold color to the risotto.

Cooking fat

The traditional cooking fat for making a risotto alla milanese is butter. That said, many modern recipes call for oil for making the soffritto, with a knob of butter for the mantecatura at the end. The difference in taste is pretty negligible.

Using a Pressure Cooker

Like other risotti, risotto alla milanese lends itself nicely to pressure cooking.

You proceed as above until the point where you add the wine and let it evaporate. Then, instead of adding the broth little by little, you add all the broth in one go—a good rule of thumb here is two parts broth for each one part rice by volume—then cover and pressure cook the rice for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it rest for 2 minutes, then release the pressure.

You then proceed to the final mantecatura. If the rice has absorbed all the broth, add a small ladleful or so to loosen it, along with the butter and cheese.

Now, of course, with this method you can’t add saffron midway through simmering. I usually add it along with the broth, so the saffron has a good chance to infuse the rice, but for a more saffron-forward risotto alla milanese, you could add it when you open the pot after pressure cooking, perhaps letting simmer for a minute or two before the final mantecatura.

Variations

While the basic recipe for risotto alla milanese is quite stable across recipes, there are a good number subtle variations to this dish you can try out as you like:

The broth

The broth is typically a rich beef broth. But I usually use a mixed meat broth. You could also use a chicken broth or a vegetable broth, or even lightly salted water.

The soffritto and toasting the rice

I’m also quite fond of using shallot instead of onions for the soffritto.
To avoid burning or browning, some chefs toast the rice and sauté the onion separately. They then add the sautéed onion to the rice (or vice versa) before proceeding with the wine. With this method, the rice is sometimes toasted dry, i.e. without any fat.
In a variation on the above, the famed Milanese chef Gualtiero Marchesi would sauté the onion separately, adding white wine and allowing the onion to simmer in the wine until creamy. He would then add the resulting onion cream to the rice just before serving. He said it lent ‘acidity and aroma’ to his risotto.
According to some sources, the original recipe for risotto alla milanese omits the wine.

The bone marrow

As noted above, not all recipes for risotto alla milanese call for bone marrow. But if you omit it, purists will say you should call your dish a risotto allo zafferano.
A foodie friend told me about a deliciously different way to use the bone marrow: Rather than adding it to the soffritto, you roast the bone marrow in a very hot (230C/450F) oven for 10-15 minutes, then use the roasted marrow instead of butter during the mantecatura. This lends a rich and beefy umami flavor to the risotto.

And, for a really different take on risotto alla milanese, you could try composer Giuseppe Verdi’s version. Among other things, he added his cheese midway through simmering and the saffron at the very end of cooking, just before serving.

A Brief History of Risotto alla milanese

Risotto alla milanese is an ancient dish, with its origins going back to the Middle Ages.

One legend has it that it was invented during the construction of the Duomo, by a glassmaker named Valerio di Fiandra. He was nicknamed ‘Zafferano’ (Saffron) because he used to color his stained glass using that spice. Well, one day he decided to flavor his risotto with his favorite spice—and the rest is history. Other sources trace the recipe further back, to the Middle Ages and kosher cookery imported to Milan by Sicilian merchants.

The first written recipe we have dates only to 1829, in a cookbook entitled Nuovo cuoco milanese economico, written by Giovanni Felice Luraschi. His recipe includes, in addition to saffron of course, beef both bone marrow and sausage. He called it risotto giallo in padella, a knickname which, as noted at the top, is still used.

Making ahead and leftovers

Like all risotti, you should eat your risotto as soon as you make it. Even after a few minutes, it loses its lovely creamy texture. That said, if you must, you can prepare the rice halfway through simmering, while the rice is still very underdone. Remove the saucepan from the heat and lay the rice out in a thin layer on a baking sheet so it cools down quickly. When you’re ready to eat, put the rice back in a saucepan along with a ladleful of hot broth and finish the dish. It will probably have cooked further as it cools, so it may not need much if any further simmering. In that case you can proceed directly to the final mantecatura.

Leftover risotto alla milanese can be made al salto, which is to say fried in butter on both sides to form a kind of pancake.

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