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.
Risotto is an amazing food. I agree about the cream, though it is time consuming, I slowly add broth to the risotto and allow it to enlarge and become creamy within its own right. Creamy risotto does not need cream.
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