Lifting Risotto's Veil of Mystery

Last summer while reading Bill Buford's Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany, I learned quite a bit about a dish I'd never eaten and didn't have that much interest in: risotto. While hanging out in Mario Batali's kitchens for various purposes, Buford himself learned quite a bit about risotto and passed along that education, in part, to his readers. The message I came away with is this: Risotto is fussy, temperamental, needy, time-consuming, high-maintenance and will turn on you if you don't devote yourself to it while preparing it.

Or maybe that was his education about polenta. Or maybe it was both. Sorry, Gentle Reader. Last summer was a long time ago.

Anywho, I like my rice pretty simple: Join the right amount of water to the desired quantity of rice, bring it to a boil, cover, reduce heat and leave it be. I'm also somewhat suspicious of shorter-grain rice varieties since I find they get gluteny and sticky and clumpy and mushy at the drop of a hat. I like my grains long and fluffy, thank you very much. The rice variety used most frequently in 'merica for risotto, arborio, looks a lot like the grains sold as Japanese sushi rice--short and somewhat squat. Not for me, thanks. I'll pass.

But then a few weekends ago, the boys and I were at the big HEB scavenging through several bins of deeply discounted clearance items. The big HEB, unlike our regular HEB, has a few long aisles of imported stuff from around the world--good-quality imported stuff at that. We found some really nifty pastas, but they were still a bit pricey, along with some roasted tomato and basil spread that's worked quite nicely on a pizza and some roasted red bell peppers, which I know I'll put to good use eventually.

We also found a few boxes of risotto allegedly imported from Italy. The price was nice--$1.50--and the boy's eyes lit up when I held up the box. He's a huge rice fan, plus he likes his pasta. For a buck-fifty, I can give my boy a cheap (literally!) thrill.

I yanked the box out of the pantry on Monday, for I didn't want to have leftovers for supper (which we often do because we need to make space in the refrigerator, plus they're easier to serve as a staggered meal if the husband gets delayed at the plasma donation center after work) but didn't want to make pasta (another easy meal to serve staggered). The recipes printed on the package seemed easy, and I had the ingredients--but they just didn't seem all that exciting. So I do what I often do when I have ingredients I want to use but not an exciting source of inspiration: I seek out Madhur Jaffrey.

Off the shelf came my copy of World Vegetarian. Sure enough, Ms. Jaffrey included a handful of risotto recipes with very clear instructions for their preparation. Add the broth one ladleful at a time? Well, I've got nothing better to do on a Monday afternoon. Stir constantly? Again, I've got nothing better to do.

Risotto With Spinach, Golden Raisins and Pine Nuts4 C light vegetable stock
3 T olive oil
2 T pine nuts
Half of a smallish onion (about 1 oz.), peeled and finely chopped
1 T golden raisins
10 oz. fresh spinach, trimmed, washed, patted dry and cut into fine ribbons
1 C unwashed risotto
1/4 t ground cinnamon
1/2 C grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 T unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1. Heat the stock and keep it hot over very, very low heat.
   
2. Put the oil in a large, heavy, preferably nonstick frying or saute pan, and set it over medium-high heat.
   
3. Toast the pine nuts in the olive oil until golden brown, then remove them with a slotted spooon.
   
4. Add the onion to the pan, stirring and frying it for a min.
   
5. Add the raisins, stir a few times and then add the spinach, stirring and frying 3 to 4 min.
   
6. Add the rice and cinnamon, and stir and fry for another minute.
   
7. Pour in a generous ladleful of stock, reduce heat to medium and keep stirring the risotto.
   
8. When the stock has been absorbed, add another ladleful.
   
9. Repeat step 8 until all the stock has been used and the rice has cooked for at least 22 min. By this time, it should be just done.
   
10. Cook the rice another minute or so to absorb the last of the liquid.
    
11. Add the cheese and butter and stir until they have melted and disappeared in the rice.
    
12. Turn off the heat, let the risotto rest a min. or two, stir and serve, sprinkling the pine nuts over the top.

Yield: 3 to 4 servings of unknown size

Nutritional Info
I can't tell you what's in the finished dish, but I can give you the lowdown from some two standout ingredients:
Delallo Superfino Arborio Rice (quarter-cup per serving)
Calories: 170
Carbs: 41 g
Protein: 3 g

Il Villaggio Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (1 oz. per serving)
Calories: 110
Fat: 8 g
Sat fat: 6 g
Protein: 9 g
Cholesterol: 25 mg
Na: 180 mg

It's not the most healthful dish in the world, but it's not the worst either.

The Faudie's Futzings
As you probably know, Gentle Reader, I tend not to futz with a recipe for a dish I've never eaten before or for an ingredient I've never worked with before because of my inexperience. However, with this risotto recipe, I felt confident enough in my previous (and prodigious) culinary misadventures with other forms of rice that I could futz a little:

• I used the Central Markup low-sodium chicken broth I had on hand. Sure, I stopped at the big HEB Monday after my workout to buy the special cheese and the pine nuts (I wasn't sure if I had any left from the bunch I'd bought for the highly intoxicating tequila bars I made ages ago) and could have easily bought some Central Markup veggie broth, but I didn't. I figured I'd save two bucks--at least on that trip to an HEB.
  
• I used a teaspoon, maybe a teaspoon and a half of olive oil. Three tablespoons just seems like overkill to me, and my gut can't take that much oil.
  
• My spinach was frozen and already chopped from a bag I'd bought in hopes of one day making some creamy chicken and spinach for the boys. I'm not sure if this one really qualifies as a futzing because in her notes for the recipe, Ms. Jaffrey writes, "If you wish to use frozen spinach, defrost and drain it first." See, Gentle Reader, Ms. Jaffrey recognizes that not all of us have ready access to, can afford or like to work with fresh spinach. And as much as I suck at draining previously frozen spinach, I gave it my best shot--and wound up with unsightly clumps, not graceful fine ribbons. Oh well.
  
• I didn't serve the risotto immediately after it had finished cooking.

That last futzing might qualify more as a massive mistake, but it was one I couldn't avoid. I'd put off making the risotto as long as I could while still allowing myself enough time (as I'd estimated I'd need) to finish it just as the husband was returning from the plasma center. Of course, The Faudie plans and the FSM laughs: The husband was about half an hour delayed.

By the time I served the risotto, I'd committed a cardinal sin: I'd let it become clumpy. So for all my careful stirring and fussing with the heat as I'd added ladleful after ladleful of broth, I got clumpy, mushy risotto.
To be fair, with all that melted cheese in it, the risotto tasted really good. The mouth feel, though, left something to be desired. That didn't prevent me from eating a good deal of it, nor did it turn off either the husband or the boy. They both seemed to enjoy it tremendously.

Lest you think I only served risotto that night, I paired it with a leftover ginger and rosemary–brined pork loin (the neighbors don't have a thyme plant I can "borrow" from, but that huge rosemary is awfully convenient) I'd made Saturday. The hint of sweet from the cinnamon and the golden raisins paired with the savory bite of the ginger from the pork were, in my unworldly opinion, a great pairing.

Returning to the making of my first risotto, I have to say that I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. It's really not that difficult to make, and from what I've read in other sources, you don't have to stir the risotto incessantly as some people would have you believe. Furthermore, it's not like your standing over a blazing hot stove for hours on end stirring some thick concoction with the kitchen equivalent of a canoe oar. It's just a wooden spoon, for the FSM's sake! And the burner isn't even all that hot.

Of course, I made a batch of risotto for three to four people. I'm sure the batches Bill Buford made while working for Mario Batali were meant to serve dozens of people and so maybe someone did have to use the kitchen equivalent of a canoe oar to stir the pot, which was in a kitchen already sweltering from the preparation of many other foodstuffs. But seriously, Gentle Reader, what's the likelihood of you or me ever being in such circumstances? Exactly.

If you find you're growing bored with your usual rice and want to play, pick up some arborio superfino the next time you're out and about and have fun. This ingredient has lots of tasty--and not so tasty--possibilities.