Risotto

On a whim (ok, that's a lie, it was basically because the only things we had in the house was Arborio Rice, half an onion, and some parmesan) I decided to take my first stab at making a Risotto last night. I didn't want to go to the store, so I ended up using what we had lying around and combining two Marcella Hazan recipes (from this fantastic book). I combined a recipe for Sausage Risotto (that's why I keep those frozen sausages) and your standard "white risotto." In a move that I'm sure would make Marcella cringe, I used beef broth instead of chicken (didn't have beef broth on hand).

For those who haven't made it, Risotto is a little tricky because its easy to mis-cook. It involves regularly adding cooking liquid (broth and/or water) to a pot of rice that must be stirred constantly. The recipe instructs you to add water when the cooking liquid in the pot "runs out." Unfortunately, "runs out" isn't the most descriptive of terms. So it's a bit of a guessing game, although I imagine it doesn't matter all that much. Either way, you keep adding liquid and stirring until the rice is "done," another vague and possibly subjective description. It's relatively easy to either undercook the rice or have a finished product that ends up a little too soupy.

Mine turned out fairly well- perhaps could have cooked a little longer with a little more liquid. But the texture was close to what I was going for if not a tiny tiny bit underdone. I was happy I added the (real) parmesan cheese as that added some nice flavor to the sausage base, although next time I think I'll add more to make it even cheesier. I like that the rich flavor of the starches in the rice come through so well in this dish. The constant stirring is a bit of a pain, but the limited number of ingredients make this a relatively easy dish to prepare otherwise. I'll do it again for sure, maybe with some tips from my father who is a bit of a risotto specialist.