Risotto Milanese - Chef Recipe by Alessandro Pavoni

Ingredients

500 ml white wine vinegar
250 ml white wine
1 shallot
1 bay leaf
2 pepper corn
500 g butter
500 g Carnaroli Rice
50 g acid butter
50 g Parmesan Vacche Rosse
2.5 L vegetable stock
1 g saffron

Method

Acid Butter:

Place vinegar, wine, shallot, bay leaf and pepper in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes until reduced to about 125 ml. Pass through a fine sieve into a food processor, add butter and blend until incorporated. Spread into a log on a sheet of baking paper, roll up tightly and refrigerate until firm.

Risotto:

Melt the butter in a high-sided frying pan over a medium heat. Add rice and a pinch of salt, and saffron and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly, until very hot but not coloured; it should start to smell toasty. Add a couple of ladles of stock and cook for 12 minutes, adding more stock, a ladle at a time as each one is absorbed, shaking the pan rather than stirring to combine.

After 12 minutes, remove the pan from the heat, add acid butter, and Parmesan, cover without stirring and set aside for 1 minute. Using a wooden spoon and shaking the pan, beat to create a creamy consistency, adding a little more stock if necessary to get the right consistency. Spoon onto 6 flat plates and tap the plate gently on a tea towel-covered workbench to flatten out the risotto.

Alessandro’s Risotto Milanese is pictured here served with beef cheeks, which have been slowly braised in red wine. Like this it can be served as a ‘secondo’ (main) rather than a ‘primo’ (entrée). If you’d like to keep it a lighter vegetarian dish, serve without the beef and simply drizzle with some high quality aged balsamic.

Recipe provided by Ormeggio at The Spit

Photo Credits: Chef Recipe - by Alessandro Pavoni