Saffron-Parmesan-Risotto

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Published: Friday, 19 December 2014 01:12

Americans and Germans love Italian food. You can find lots of restaurants and diners serving all kinds of pizza and pasta. One of my favorites is a risotto with saffron and Parmesan. It´s not very easy to cook this special kind of rice. In shops you can buy three different kinds of these round and sticky-cooking rice grains. Very popular are the types Arborio and Carnaroli. Arborio risotto rice comes from a town called Arborio in Piedmont in Italy. The grains have a very symmetric shape. The type Carnaroli is a hybrid. It derives from the hybridization between the type Lencino and Vialone. Carnaroli rice is spindle-shaped and takes also about 16 minutes until it´s „al dente“. Vialone rice grains are very big and its cooking time is 14 minutes.

A very good risotto has to have a creamy taste and the grains should not be overcooked as well as undercooked. The secret is that you must have lots of patience. Risotto has to be stirred until it´s ready to serve and please don't turn up the heat of the cooking plate too high. Just stir in the hot broth (I prefer venison or canard broth, but you also can use beef, chicken or vegetable stock) and the wine and let the grains absorb the fluids.

Here are the ingredients for the risotto with saffron and Parmesan: 500 g risotto rice 500 ml broth 100 g Parmesan Butter 1 Little jar of saffron 1 Onion 1/8 l White wine (dry) Salt and Pepper
Heat up the broth and the white wine in a pan.
Dice the onion in small pieces and start melting some butter in a pan. Sauté the onions until they are clear and soft and then fill up the pan with the risotto rice.
Now you have to take a soup ladle and fill the pan with some hot broth and wine. The risotto only has to be covered up a little. Now you have to stir the rice grains until it has sucked up all the fluid. Don't stop stirring, let the risotto simmer and don't forget to ad some more both and white wine. Some grains will stick on the edge of the pan, just push them down with a wooden spoon, so that they also can soak up some fluid.
After a few minutes you can try the risotto and as soon as the grains are al dente, ad a few flakes of butter, the grated Parmesan and the saffron. Stir until everything is mixed together.
Now it´s time to eat - enjoy!