Italian Flag Risotto
Americans tend to think of pizza as Italy’s national dish, but Italians — particularly northern Italians — would probably beg to differ. Wheat fields in the south give way to rice paddies in the north, and where you find rice, you’re more likely to find risotto on the menu rather than wheat-based pastas, breads, and crusts.
Risotto is made from Arborio rice, a specific type of grain that is short/starchy enough to absorb a fair amount of liquid but is long/less-starchy enough to maintain its integrity and not clump and mass to all the other grains. The result is a dish that straddles both the short- and long-grain worlds: savory rice that takes on the flavor of the liquid but still has a bit of crunch. Truly toothsome, you could say.
Getting this effect requires the slow addition of liquid — you add a bit, let the grains simmer and soak, and then add a bit more…and a bit more…and a bit more, until you have a pan of full-flavored-but-still-separate grains. What kind of complementary ingredients you add is up to you: peas, mushrooms, saffron, Parmesan, fresh basil strips, etc. For this dish, I thought I would make a quintessential Italian dish even more so by adding roasted red peppers and peas to make a culinary Italian flag.
Italian Flag Risotto
Note that the 2 cups rice to 8 cups liquid serves 4 as a main course; double or halve the recipe as needed.
8 cups chicken broth
2 T. butter
2 cups Arborio rice
2 cloves garlic, sliced into thin rounds
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup peas (fresh or frozen and thawed)
1/2 cup roasted red pepper strips
1 T. extra-virgin olive oil
2/3 to 1 cup grated Parmesan (optional)
Heat the broth in a pan as you’re cooking the rice. This is to keep the broth as warm as the cooking rice so that you don’t drastically affect the temperature (and hence cooking time) of the rice when you add more broth to it.
In a large, flat-bottomed pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in rice, turning heat down to medium-low, until each grain is coated with butter. Stir in garlic. Cook for another 3 minutes, then add white wine. Let rice absorb wine before adding a cup of the heated broth.
Continue to do the absorb-add-absorb-add procedure (add about 1/2 cup of broth at a time, less if you’re not making the full recipe) until the rice has swelled up but is still a bit crunchy to the tooth. Stir often throughout the process and make sure that the rice stays at a simmer rather than a boil.
The overall process will probably take at least 30 minutes, but it’s worth it!! You may want to add a bit of sea salt to taste, bearing in mind that the broth may be salty and that you may be garnishing the final dish by adding a salty cheese like Parmesan. Towards the end of the cooking time, stir in the peas so that they have a chance to defrost.
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the roasted pepper strips. Add the olive oil and cheese if you like, then serve immediately.
Buon appetito!
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Tags: italian, peas, rice, risotto, roasted red peppers
