7 Additions That Make Risotto a Complete Meal (2024)

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7 Additions That Make Risotto a Complete Meal? ›

Beyond the base, our favorite risotto recipes bring an extra element to the plate: tender seafood that lends its briny flavor to the broth, bright green veggies, earthy mushrooms, or even a toasty—almost smoky—caramel sauce (save that one for dessert).

Beyond the base, our favorite risotto recipes bring an extra element to the plate: tender seafood that lends its briny flavor to the broth, bright green veggies, earthy mushrooms, or even a toasty—almost smoky—caramel sauce (save that one for dessert).

Risotto is an Italian dish made by cooking a starchy, short grain rice like arborio with stock until it becomes creamy.

Always use warm stock.

Warming the broth before adding it to the warm rice coaxes more starch out of each grain of rice and helps prevent it from overcooking. Cool broth takes longer to warm up in the risotto pan and may shock the grain into holding onto its starches while the rice itself continues to cook.

Use Salted Water Instead of Broth in Risotto

It's an ingenious tip on many levels.

Toast rice briefly in butter and/or olive oil, then add a single ladleful of stock (you can use wine for this first liquid addition) and stir slowly with a wooden spoon until the stock is absorbed.

How do you fix bland risotto? You could sauté some garlic in a bit of olive oil in a separate pan and toss it in. Adding some crispy pancetta would really liven it up (I always keep some pre-chopped pancetta in the fridge for moments like these). Sautéed garlic and pancetta, then sprinkle on some parmesan.

According to Salvatore, the trick is in the timing. The chef spends 16 minutes exactly focusing just on feeding risotto with stock or water, eyeing the rice while it simmers to ensure that the liquid is slowly plumping the grains rather than quickly drying them out.

Butter: A generous amount of butter at the end adds more creamy texture and rich flavor. Parmesan cheese: You've come this far. Don't shortchange the flavor of your risotto by using anything other than freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Chives: Chives cut through the richness and add visual appeal, too.

What makes risotto creamy? ›

It's all that starch that makes the dish so creamy. If you're feeling fancy (and feel like spending a little more money), look for Carnaroli rice. Like Arborio, it has very high starch content. Carnaroli is considered the premiere rice for risotto.

The concept of mantecare, (the verb form of mantecatura) is an Italian cooking essential, one that's crucial to risotto. It comes from the Spanish word for butter and means to gently work something—usually a dish—into a creamy consistency by blending in some sort of fat or butter.

Add butter and a blend of cheeses for extra creaminess

The final touch to any risotto is the addition of butter and cheese. Here is where you definitely should not skimp on quality. Using good-quality butter in combination with good-quality cheese will create a final dish that will amaze.

In Italy, when it is not used as a complete meal, risotto is considered a main dish, and is usually served with small portions of meat or light vegetable side dishes. For example, it is very common to pair risotto with a couple of lemon escalopes, or with bresaola and arugula.

Risotto doesn't need heavy cream at all. In most recipes you should roast it with a stick of butter or /oil before gradually adding broth. At the end of cooking, take away the pot from the fire and do “mantecatura”. It means you can slowly add Parmesan or Pecorino *if the recipes requires* until it's creamy enough.