Name: Basic Risotto (Risotto)
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 55 g (2 oz) Parmesan, freshly grated; 1.7 litres (3 pints) stock, simmering; 55 g (2 oz) butter; 350 g (12 oz) risotto rice; 2 tbsp olive oil; salt and pepper to taste

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

An Invitation to Italian Cooking

By Antonio Carluccio

Published 1986

About

‘Oryza sativa, the Latin name for rice, was first cultivated in Italy around the fifteenth century. The japonica subspecies forms a round and large grain, grown for its starchy qualities - indispensable when making risotto. The types include carnaroli, vialone nano, arborio and, less well known, baldo.’

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
55 g (2 oz) butter
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Method

Use a heavy saucepan with a rounded bottom, big enough to contain the rice, plus the liquid. Heat the oil and half the butter in this, then add and carefully coat the rice before adding any liquid. Turn the rice with a wooden spoon. You start to add the boiling stock when the rice is well and truly impregnated with butter and starts to stick to the bottom of the pan. Add only a ladleful at a ti