Column “Home Cook”: The perfect risotto

The perfect risotto is, of course, a matter of faith. And also a matter of taste, says Davide Posillipo. There are excellent risottos based on chicken or beef broth, but at his "Osteria della Mal'Ora" in Tronzano in Piedmont's rice-growing province of Vercelli, Posillipo prepares rice exclusively with a simple, almost pale vegetable broth. Because he likes it that way and because it brings out the rice's natural flavor.

Posillipo worked as a chef in southern Italy and France, including in gourmet restaurants, before finally returning to his hometown and modernizing the local osteria with his parents. Simple dishes based on excellent ingredients, transparently and perfectly prepared with craftsmanship, but without any frills—that's his cuisine.

There are no vegetables in the broth that dominate the flavor—no eggplant, no peppers, no parsley, and certainly no garlic. No salt is allowed either, because the rice would absorb it all and become too salty. Posillipo puts a halved onion, a halved tomato, and a few pieces of zucchini and carrot in about 1.5 liters of water. He lets everything simmer for 30 minutes. That's it; you can dilute it with water at any time. The broth is already on the stove, next to it is a shallow, wide-bottomed pot (a deep-sided pan works too) so that the rice is evenly distributed, absorbs the liquid evenly, and doesn't stick.

The three phases of a risotto are tostatura, cottura, and mantecatura – toasting, cooking, and adding fat for creaminess (mantecatura comes from the Spanish "mantequilla" for butter, which reveals that the rice arrived in Italy via Spain more than 500 years ago). To toast, the cook gently sweats one small diced onion in a little olive oil, then increases the heat to medium and tosses in 200g of Carnaroli rice (for 2 people) for about 2 minutes, adding a good pinch of salt; stirring is recommended. Then Posillipo deglazes the pan with 2-3 ladles of hot stock so that the rice is just covered; now the cooking phase begins. It is important for the later consistency that the rice simmers evenly and continuously, which is why any liquid added should be heated beforehand.

The cooking phase means adding liquid, stirring, simmering, stirring, and adding more liquid. Posillipo flavors his risottos with vegetable purée toward the end of the cooking time. In this case, he steamed 200g of green asparagus for 7-8 minutes and puréed it with a pinch of salt, 2-3 tablespoons of water, and 1 tablespoon of olive oil (this works exactly the same with baked or boiled beets or broccoli). He stirs everything into the rice and lets it simmer briefly (a splash of white wine doesn't hurt either).

At Posillipo, Carnaroli risotto is ready in 18 minutes, and Arborio risotto in 16 minutes. The rice grains should be creamy, yet still have a bite. The typical sloppiness is achieved with the mantecatura, for which the chef skillfully folds in a few flakes of cold butter and 3-4 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese (beginners should stir). Only then does he season with salt and stir in a handful of steamed, bite-sized asparagus.

Finally, the risotto is divided between two plates. The highlight is a cream, for which Posillipo briefly boiled 100 ml of cream and 100 ml of milk and dissolved 100 g of grated Parmesan cheese. He spreads some of the cream in decorative spirals over the risotto, leaving the rest for later.

- 200 g Carnaroli rice (the larger-grained Arborio variety also works, but then the risotto will be a bit more compact)

- 1 small onion

- 1 l vegetable broth (water, 1 tomato, 1 onion, 1 carrot, 1 small zucchini)

- Salt (and black pepper to taste)

- 200 g asparagus

- olive oil

- possibly 1 shot of white wine

- 30 g butter (more to taste)

- 125 g grated Parmesan cheese

- 100 ml milk

- 100 ml cream