Name: Black Risotto (Risotto Nero)
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 350 g (12 oz) risotto rice; salt and pepper to taste; 75 ml (2½ fl oz) dry white wine; 55 g (2 oz) butter; 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) small cuttlefish, to make 300g (10½ oz) when cleaned; 1.7 litres (3 pints) Fish Stock, simmering; 1 small onion, chopped; 2 tbsp olive oil

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

An Invitation to Italian Cooking

By Antonio Carluccio

Published 1986

About

‘This is a typically Venetian dish and is not always popular with everybody because of its slightly funereal appearance. It does, however, have an exceptional taste and is invariably to be found in all the renowned restaurants in Venice.’

Ingredients

500 g (1 lb 2 oz) small cuttlefish, to make 300g (10½ oz) when cleaned
2

Method

Not all seafood risottos need be ‘black’. All round the Italian coast, risottos are made with the local fish and shellfish. Simply cook the shellfish briefly in water, which you then use as part of the risotto stock.

Clean the cuttlefish: first pull off the head with the tentacles, then pull out the rest of the contents of the body. Take out the backbone and remove the outside skin from