Devotion or Obsession??

Everyone, foodies and non-foodies alike, has one food that they treasure.  One dish that always makes them either happy, nostalgic, excited or all three!  This dish is protected like a younger sibling on the school yard, and when you see people abusing it the situation turns ugly.  This is a tale of my treasured dish, risotto and the lengths people go to protect their favorite food.

Several years ago I spent a semester abroad in Florence, Italy, studying at the Apicius Culinary Center.  Now Italy is known for many things, living inexpensively is not one of them.  As the months went on my bank roll became lighter and lighter my culinary options became limited.  I started looking for cheap items that could stretch the remaining Euros I had left, while still leaving me satisfied enough to enjoy the nightlife(this is a tale of risotto not my poor priority choices).  Then one day our teacher taught us a classic dish, osso buco Milanese, and gave me the best present of the semester! 

I don’t like to jump to assumptions but everyone in that class must have been extreamly lazy, stoned or drunk to be as bad as they were.  My partner and I, mostly me because he couldn’t figure out how to cut onions without slicing the tip of his finger off, made a perfect risotto while everyone else’s looked sad and goopy.  Needless to say the teacher loved me and at the end of the class that day I asked if I could take some of the raw rice back home to “practice my technique”.  She gave me a 5 kilo bag, about 11 pounds!!!

Since I lived right next to the market, and spoke just enough Italian at the time, I begged all the butchers for bones.  Fish bones, chicken bones, beef bones, any animal they had I was asking for the bones.  I would take them home, caramelize them in several skillets then make rich stocks.  Wine was always plentiful and cheap, and granna padano cost almost nothing.  I spent the last few weeks of my adventure abroad living on hot bowls of that beautiful rice, and my love affair became a lifelong commitment.  Now I have a full garden of supplies, and risotto is my canvas upon which I paint the bounty of spring.

This first dish is inspired by a classic, Champagne risotto with julienned zucchini and clams with fresh squash blossoms.  The champagne gives the dish a lightness and crisp flavor, accentuating the sweet clams and the floral zucchini.  The fresh clams are first cooked in the stock used to make the rice then place right on top of the plate while the zucchini is stirred in right as I pulled the pot off of the stove.  This left a beautiful sea note throughout the dish and a nice contrast of textures between the al dente rice and the semi crisp zucchini.

My next dish was inspired by my dad and his love of all things beet.  It’s a white wine risotto with roasted golden beets, house pickled beets, fresh tarragon and thyme.  The combination of the sweet pickled beet against the roasted caramelized goodness of the beet provided a wonderful mix of both flavors and textures.  The earthy fresh thyme complimented the light anise of the tarragon to enlighten each grain.  Then to really take this over the edge we topped it with a balsamic glaze seared sea scallop and a drizzle of balsamic syrup.

This dish is a tribute to my grandfather and the most amazing sweet corn he used to grow on the farm every year.  I made a sweet corn and oven roasted tomato risotto topped with sautéed fresh sweet corn and grape tomatoes.  I used champagne for this as well because I didn’t want a powerful wine flavor fighting with the subtle flavor of the corn while still providing the acidity required.  Each kernel burst with a sweet flavor and the tomatoes brought a dark caramelized flavor for body.  It was a hearty yet light tale of the garden in spring.

Oh and about the lengths some people go to protect their beloved dishes I introduce my buddy, let’s call him Joe.  Joe is an amazing cook, giant smart ass, and fiercely loyal.  We were both working at this Italian restaurant and Joe was training me on the sauté line.  As he was explaining how to make the risotto the executive chef came in and stopped him. “No, we don’t finish the dish with stock we use cream.  How else do you think it gets creamy?”  Joe looked at him right in the eye then back to me.  “If you put cream in that rizzo I will find and kill your children.”  Then under, his breath loud enough for both of us to hear, he mumbled, ”Idiot.  To some people you just don’t mess with their dish.

Stay tuned for more inspired dishes from Lon Lane's Inspired Occasions Research and Development Department!