Basic risotto.

To make a risotto is one of the easiest things in the world. They say that a classic Italian dish is take a simple dish and then remove two of the ingredients. In this case for you basic risotto you have that perfect case in point. But that being said most of the time when I have ever had a risotto it has not been right, over cooked and stodgy, so to start with we will just cook the basic risotto.

You will need to start with

450g/1½pts of good chicken stock
85g/3oz butter
1 medium onion
1 garlic clove
1tdsp olive oil
450g/1ld Arborio rice
Salt and fresh ground black pepper

And this is all you need for the very basic risotto, nothing more and nothing less. But when I say nothing more you need the best home made chicken stock. Made from chicken bones with onions, celery and carrots boiled away so that when it is cold it goes like a rich jelly.

Warm you stock so it is hot, do not boil as you will just end up with out any stock left. Now take a pan that has a large flat base. The better the risotto will cook the more it is in contact with the surface of the pan. Then add the butter and the oil to a pan and heat till the butter has melted. Dice the onion as fine as you can and crush the garlic. Now add the rice, onions and garlic and stir it in to the oil and the butter. Cook the rice till almost all the oil and the butter has been soaked up by the rice. Now a ladle ful at a time slowly add the stock to the rice. Keep adding the stock till the rice is cooked and then season with salt and pepper. Once you have cooked the rice like this then you have made the basic risotto.

To finish this and turn it from some thing basic to some thing majestic add the following.

180g/6oz parmesan cheese grated
180g/60z gruyere cheese grated
Fresh parsley chopped
118ml/¼ pint of cream
Some grated nutmeg.

Just take of the heat and add all the ingredients and stir them in. Wait till the cheese has melted in and if you need to return to the heat and warm a little more and serve in a large bowl.

Once you have made this then you can experiment by adding mushrooms, bacon, fish, and chicken. In fact any thing you want. Just do not over cook the rice and start with a good stock and you will have a winning dish every time.