On Saturday, June 19, La Cucina Italiana hosted a virtual culinary experience during which chef Antonia Klugmann prepared one of her signature recipes: pepper and grapefruit risotto. The event was held in partnership with the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce West.
Klugmann is the chef and owner of L'Argine a Venco, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Friuli-Venezia Giulia located less than a mile from the Slovenian border. During a conversation with La Cucina Italiana's editor-in-chief Maddalena Fossati, the chef discussed what the idea of "My Authentic Italian Table” means to her, from the must-have items in her pantry to the memories and emotions connected to the simple action of cooking a meal.
Check out the video for highlights of their conversation, and if you'd like to give her risotto a whirl, here's the recipe.
Antonia Klugmann's Pepper and Grapefruit Risotto
Skill Level: Intermediate - Expert
grapefruit butter (instructions below)
cream of red peppers (instructions below)
centrifuge of yellow peppers
powder of red and yellow peppers
6 oz./180 grams carnaroli rice
grapefruit powder
Frigitelli peppers that have been roasted on the flame, peeled, cut into cubes and marinated in with grapefruit juice in a vacuum pack.
Method
Toast some carnaroli rice and follow the risotto cooking method to cook the rice with the yellow pepper centrifuge.
Add the red pepper cream ¾ of the way through cooking the rice, and add the sour butter at the end, to mantecare.
For the red pepper cream
Place the peppers on a baking tray, sprinkle with salt and cook in the oven at 400°F/ 200°C for 20 minutes on each side. When done, remove from the oven and let cool. Peel the peppers, keeping any water they released while cooking. Blend the peppers and their water with smoked and plain paprika.
For the sour butter
Combine ¾ liter white wine with 4 shallots + some of the pepper cooking water in a pan, and prepare a reduction. Separately, juice 1 grapefruit and set aside. When properly reduced, remove from the flame and the butter mixture (see below), fresh grapefruit juice, and grapefruit powder.\
For the butter mixture
Combine 2 cups/420 g of Insigny butter; 1 cup + 2 Tbsp./250 g normal butter; ⅔ cup / 200 g of the wine and shallot reduction, the filtered juice of 3 grapefruits and grapefruit powder to taste. Mix and let cool.