Making risotto is like having a conversation with your spouse – or worse, your mother – and try to cut it short… you’ll get smacked!
While making a good risotto is a fairly easy process, there is a certain kind of reverence that this dish demands; try any short cut, and you will end up paying the price. Time, patience, monotony, prep work, and endless stirring are a few of the key ingredients to this Italian staple. Your reward, however, oh my; with the perfect execution, a whole world of culinary possibilities will suddenly reveal themselves to you, and a new level in your kitchen game play will unlock. This is the main reason why I absolutely adore this dish. Knowing the few secrets that will impeccably deliver a delicious and “al dente” risotto, is just like learning a short poem by heart; once you know it, you can start interpreting it your way to give it your own personality!
Fiesole (ph credit Gabriele Corcos)
For the first time in my life, I will celebrate this Thanksgiving in Tuscany, where I relocated with my family during this past summer. I am trying to keep my daughters’ American traditions alive while spinning recipes a bit in my direction so that I can make the best of local and seasonal ingredients. We did not have pumpkins for Halloween this fall, so we are having a squash risotto for our last Thursday of this sunny and warm Florentine November. This dish is at the same time delicate and decisive. While the squash provides sweetness, texture, and color, the creaminess and sour notes of the Taleggio cheese give balance in consistency and taste offset. Then comes the crunch of the toasted hazelnuts, as seasonal as the insanely beautiful sunset I am watching from my window right now.
Let’s dive a bit into the pure mechanics of this recipe before we get cooking.
Texture – Never stop stirring, never add too much broth at the same time, and taste often to check texture and saltiness.
Broth – As much as I would like to encourage you to make your own fresh broth, I do understand the hustle and time required. Feel free to use a store-bought organic one, but please do watch for flavor and salt content, as the wrong broth can toss your risotto upside down. Also, consider diluting any store-bought broth with water; they are usually not also strong in flavor, but tough on colors and can turn your dish brown… for real.
Ingredients – Please do play with this recipe. The process of cooking rice is the same for almost all risotto recipes. Cook it with saffron broth, replace the squash with zucchini, Taleggio with Gorgonzola, and the hazelnuts with walnuts. The basics are all here for you to get creative.
Be seasonal – I once wrote a book that had a sick summer recipe: risotto with speck and cantaloupe. Don’t go looking for it. Cook this one, enjoy it, then think about the way you would make a seasonal version of it. There are endless combinations, all prepared with very similar cooking techniques… Shall we start a thread in the comments down below?
Risotto under the Tuscan sun for The Tuscan Gun! (ph credit Gabriele Corcos)
Precook – Let’s say you’re throwing a party and want to get a bit ahead on your preparations, so you don’t have to slave in the kitchen while your friends are finishing all the good wine in the next room. Cook the risotto up to the moment you are supposed to start adding other ingredients to it, remove it from the heat and set aside. Revive it over a medium heat with a ladle of warm broth about 10-15 minutes prior to serving.
Plating – Risotto is not paella! The consistency between these two dishes are polar opposites; while paella is dry and crumbly, risotto is thick and creamy and does not do well in large vessels, especially when it starts to cool off during serving. I personally always plate this dish individually, paying particular attention to its finishing, and the fun creative opportunities it can provide me with.
Leftovers – Arancini, anyone?
Honey – Just a drizzle it across the plate. A secret, delicious and final ingredient not mentioned in the recipe below, to dress this holiday recipe… Since you took the time to read this full paragraph of mine, thank you.
Beautiful and delicious! (ph Gabriele Corcos)
Risotto With Squash, Taleggio and Hazelnuts By Gabriele Corcos
Serves 4-6 / Prep Time 50 mins / Cooking time 15-20 mins
Ingredients:
Broth (optional)
1 red onion, halved
2 medium carrots, chopped in 3-4 pieces
3 celery stocks, hopped in 3-4 pieces
1 head of garlic, halved
1 generous handful of parsley
8 cups of water
Rice
2 cups Arborio rice
1 white onion
2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup dry white wine
6 cups vegetable broth (warm)
½ cup freshly grated Parmigiano cheese
1 small Parmigiano rind (optional)
2 oz Taleggio cheese, diced ¼”, rinds removed
Salt and pepper, to taste
Squash
2 cups squash, diced ¼” (approx. 1 lb)
2 sprigs of rosemary
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Finishing
2 oz toasted Hazelnuts
3 tbsp freshly chopped parsley
Freshly grated Parmigiano cheese
Extra-virgin olive oil
Method:
Broth
Add water and vegetables to a medium pot over high heat and bring to a rolling boil.
Reduce heat to a generous simmer and cook for about 60 mins, or until reduced to about 6 cups of broth.
Squash
Preheat oven to 400ºF. Peel and dice the squash, place it on a baking sheet or in a cast iron pan, add the rosemary, drizzle with oil, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Place in the oven and cook for 25-30 mins, stirring once or twice. It is important for the squash not to be overcooked or over-worked while in the oven, as you want to retain its texture and firmness. Remove from the oven to cool off, then discard the rosemary.
Squash out of the oven (ph Gabriele Corcos)
Hazelnuts
Add the hazelnuts to a small tray or ramekin and place them in the oven with the squash. Toast them for about 10-15 mins. Once ready, transfer them to a ceramic bowl to cool off.
In small batches and over the kitchen sink (or a compost bin), rub the hazelnuts hard in the palm of your hands, so to exfoliate most of their peel that dried off while in the oven.
Transfer the hazelnuts to a cutting board and chop them very coarsely, set aside for finishing.
Going nuts for hazelnuts (ph Gabriele Corcos)
Risotto
Over medium-high heat in a large cast-iron pot or non-stick pan, sauté the finely chopped onion in butter and olive oil until soft and translucent, not browned.
Add the rice and, using a wooden spoon, stir well until evenly mixed with the soffritto. Toast the rice for about 2-3 minutes, then add the white wine. Let cook until almost all the liquid is absorbed.
Start adding the vegetable broth (just enough to barely cover the rice), mix well and bring to a very gentle simmer, then lower the heat to a medium-low. Let most of the broth be absorbed, then add more as needed.
Add the Parmigiano cheese rind (optional).
The making of (ph Gabriele Corcos)
About halfway into the cooking process (about 10 mins, depending on your brand of rice), add the grated Parmigiano cheese, the cubed Taleggio cheese and mix well into the rice until completely melted. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Cook for another 5-7 minutes, starting to reduce the increments of broth added. The perfect risotto is wet yet firm, you know… Fork food, no spoon required.
Start tasting the rice every minute or so, adjust salt and pepper if needed, and finally add the squash to the pan. Fold the risotto gently over the vegetable, so the vegetables retain their shape and texture. Cook for an extra minute or so, tasting as often you think you need, while striving for an “al dente” bite of the grain.
Once ready, plate individually. Finish with some grated Parmigiano cheese, a dash of chopped parsley, a generous sprinkle of hazelnuts, and the obvious, mandatory drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.
Browse the photo gallery for more beautiful pictures taken by Gabriele Corcos - bravo!