Name: Risotto alla Milanese Classico (Classic Milanese Risotto)
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 115 g/4 oz/½ cup unsalted butter; 1-2 sachets of saffron powder, or a small pinch of saffron threads; 500 g/1¼ lb vialone gigante, or other risotto rice; ½ onion, finely chopped; 1.5 litres/2½ pints/6¼ cups hot rich veal, beef, chicken or vegetable stock; 50 g/2 oz/⅔ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra to serve; 40 g/1½ oz raw beef bone marrow, chopped (optional)

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Italian Regional Cookbook

By Valentina Harris

Published 2017

About

The origins of this dish belong to an Italian legend about the master in charge of stained glass windows in Milan Cathedral, who employed a keen workman to paint the yellow robes of St Helen. The workman used saffron to colour the glass and he was so passionate about his saffron powder that he was named Zafferano (meaning ‘saffron’) by his colleagues, who claimed that one day he’d probably even add it to his risotto! and one day he did: on the occasion of the wedding of the master’s daughte