Snippets from the Italian Scene
On Making Risotto
Folks, sorry this issue of the Newsletter is a bit late, but I was at Vinitaly last week, tasting wines and networking -- one of the highlights of the trip was a dinner I had with Alessandro Carnevale (see the profile posted in January; his current vintages are also very good). While we were walking to the restaurant his cell phone rang, and we ended up driving out to Isola Della Scala, where Gabriele Ferron was cooking up a dinner for his distributors -- in addition to growing Vialone Nano, one of the finest Italian rices, the man is a 5 star chef. The meal was extraordinary, with all sorts of risotti, including one made with iris bulbs, as well as pasta (made from rice) and a rice-based cake after the chicken pilaf. The most interesting part was talking with Gabriele, however.
His risotto technique differs somewhat from the classic technique one finds in cookbooks: He begins by browning the onion (or leek or whatever) in olive oil, never butter, and once it has browned he removes lest it burn and become bitter as he fries the rice, a process that takes about 10 minutes over a moderate flame, while stirring constantly. Then he returns the onion to the rice and adds the wine, which he has previously heated -- "if you add cold wine you shock the rice, which will flake on the outside and stay hard at the core," he says. He then lets the wine evaporate completely before adding the remaining ingredients, and the broth, which he adds all at once, rather than a ladle at a time. He then covers the rice and lets it cook gently for about 15 minutes, stirring in a little more broth at the end that combines with the starch the rice gives off, giving it a creamy texture. Then does whatever last-minute things need doing and serves it.
No butter, and no cream at the end, ever. He is able to cook his risotto this way because he knows his rice -- Vialone Nano absorbs 1.5 (if I recall correctly) times its volume in liquid, so that's what he adds. The bottom line is, you may not be able to adopt his cooking method if you are using a rice you have never tried before, but once you have a feel for the volume of water the rice will absorb to reach the degree of doneness you like, his method will give you consistently good results. And his suggestions regarding wine temperature and removing the onions from the pot after they have browned are valid in any case.
A presto,
Kyle Phillips
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