Risotto (milanese) is a classic Italian dish. It is a widely popular dish with it’s roots traced back to Northern Italy during the Middle Ages. In Italy, Risotto (milanese) is mostly consumed as the main course or entrée and not a side dish.
There are various other ways as to what ingredients to be used or added to this dish to make it a more filling and sumptuous meal, just like there are also many variations of this dish like the mushroom risotto and saffron risotto.
Risotto (milanese) is slow-cooked made by constantly stirring hot stock to Arborio rice and often other ingredients like caramelized onions. The stock used in making risotto is added bit-by-bit and should also be fully absorbed into the rice before more stock is added; this process can take about 45 minutes and will definitely result into a delicious and creamy mixture of al-dente (to the tooth) rice.
The ingredients used in making this recipe all give there share of taste and flavor as they are carefully and slowly infused with love. The onions give off a sweet flavor as they’re caramelized, garlic is some what optional in this recipe if you are not a fan of garlic but it further enhances the flavor of the dish; for the rice we used Arborio rice because of its typical short length but you can replace with Baldor, Carnaroli or Vialone nano rice; A good homemade chicken stock is what we used to cook the rice but a beef stock or vegetable stock could also be a substitute; for seasoning we used salt and pepper the absolute originals of all time; finally cheese and a good heavy cream for the finishing or unsalted butter as a substitute.
Ingredients
- 4 cups Arborio rice
- 1-2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 finely minced garlic cloves
- 10 cups warm chicken stock
- 1 peeled small diced onions
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
- 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
Procedure
To make risotto (milanese), a delicious and comforting Italian dish, follow the simple steps below to achieve it to al-dente.
- In a pot preferably a nonstick pot/ cast iron pot/ ceramic coated, add your olive oil and turn the heat to medium-low heat.
- Next you add in your onions and cook for about 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned or translucent or even cook further to caramelize like we did. You could use yellow onion, white onion or red/ purple onion. Note: if you choose to caramelize your onions, it will slightly alter the flavor of the risotto (milanese) and also change the color of the rice from white to translucent or some browning from toasting it, but that is fine.
- Then go in with your finely minced garlic, cook for about 30-45 seconds until you get or perceive the aroma from the fragrance of the garlic.
- Next you will add your rice and toast it by constantly stirring for about 3-4 minutes.
- Add about quarter cups of the warm chicken stock at a time to the rice while continuously stirring it until it has absorbed by the rice; repeat he process until you have exhausted your measured out stock and the rice is cooked to a tooth (this should take about 25-40minutes). Note: It takes about 5cups of stock to cook 2cups of Arborio rice and you could substitute chicken stock with beef stock or water as well.
- Next, you stir in your heavy cream, the parmesan cheese, add your salt and pepper to taste and allow it to cook for an additional 2-3 more minutes. You could also switch your heavy cream with 4 table spoons of unsalted butter to control the sodium content.
- Garnish with more parmesan cheese if you want and some fresh parsley.
- Serve immediately with a chilled cup of orange sunrise or keep it warm in a pot covered with a lid over very low heat for up to 20 minutes before you serve.
Enjoy!
