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How to make perfect risotto

Matt Holden

How do you make the perfect risotto? We asked three Italian chefs, known for their excellent risotto to share their secrets: Alberto Fava of Melbourne's Tipo 00; Sandro di Marino of Besser in Sydney; and Enrico Tomelleri of Fratelli Paradiso, also in Sydney.

The rice

Rice for risotto must be an Italian variety with a high concentration of the starches amylopectin and amylose (amylopectin dissolves easily during cooking, contributing to the creamy texture. Amylose is tougher, and soaks up flavour). Arborio, vialone nano and carnaroli are the most common varieties.

"Carnaroli is the best for risotto," says Alberto Fava. "It's just a very good grain that holds cooking well. It really has a good quantity of starch."

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At Besser, di Marino uses Acquerello, a brand of carnaroli superfino that is aged.

Stock

"Spending a bit of time on the stock is definitely worthwhile," says Tomelleri. He says vegetable stock is a good all-purpose choice.

"I like to use onion, celery, fennel tops, parsley and a few ripe tomatoes. I brown the onions first to gain an extra golden colour but also lots of flavour."

Di Marino recommends chicken stock, while Fava's tip is that it should be light: "A vegetable stock is very good. If you do a seafood risotto maybe a fish stock, but always light – you don't want to overpower the risotto."

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Oil or butter?

Tostatura is the process of coating the rice in oil or butter and gently heating it, often in a soffritto. "We start with onion and butter, even a little olive oil. Then we add the rice," says Sandro Di Marino. "The rice slowly changes colour and becomes shinier. Only do this for a couple of minutes. You don't want to go too far or the rice will get too hot."

Fava says, "Toast your rice in the pan with a little olive oil. The tostatura coats the rice and seals the grain. Let it toast until you can nearly hear the rice pop. But you must not get any colour – that's when the rice starts to burn. So it has to be a gentle heat – no violence. You need to look after it. Use olive oil, not butter."

Says Tomelleri: "I usually start with a nice extra virgin olive oil for toasting the rice. Make sure to stir the rice well: you want all the grains to be well heated."

Deglazing

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"Next, you add a little white wine to stop the tostatura and deglaze," says Alberto Fava, although Sandro di Marino says you don't have to use white wine: "It depends on what you are going to prep. You can go from white wine to red wine to champagne or prosecco. I recently did a risotto with beer and mortadella – something different."

Beating the glug

The key to keeping a nice loose texture in risotto is to cook it in enough stock, and keep stirring to a minimum. "The rice needs stock to cook," says Fava. "If you use too little it will take forever – you're stirring a dry risotto. So you need a fair amount, especially at the start, to cover it."

"Stir as little as you can," says Tomelleri. "When you stir, the rice releases starch, which will make your risotto gluggy." If risotto gets too gluggy, says Fava, add a touch of hot stock.

Risotto, like pasta, should be served al dente. You know it's cooked, says Di Marino, when you can press a grain between your fingers and the white germ in the middle breaks. If the germ is still hard, the risotto isn't cooked.

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Butter and cheese

"When you have finished the risotto you still want to add a little stock to keep it loose," says Di Marino. "Risotto takes about 15 minutes to cook. I taste after 15 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat and let it rest for five minutes. Then I finish with butter and parmesan. The creaminess is a combination of butter, parmesan and a little stock to make sure it's still a bit loose."

How much butter? Quite a bit, it turns out. "For 500 grams of rice about 100 or 150 grams of butter," says Di Marino. "You need around 100 or 150 grams of parmesan as well."

Parmesan – but which one?

Tomelleri and Fava use grana padano but di Marino says you can add other cheese as well for different flavours: "We do gorgonzola with radicchio and montepulciano d'Abruzzo wine. You can do taleggio. We even use stracciatella, which is a really soft, creamy cheese."

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And Australian parmesan? "No, I don't use it," says Alberto Fava. "No."

Recipes

Risotto with tastasal

This is a typical risotto dish from Enrico Tomelleri's home town of Verona.

"This risotto is very rich and tasty thanks to the tastasal, which is the seasoned ground pork used in salame, soppressa and sausages," he said. Tastasal translates to taste the salt.

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400g coarsely ground fatty pork mince

black pepper, to taste

salt, to taste

1-2 pinches of ground nutmeg

900ml meat stock

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half a white onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

400g vialone nano rice

200ml dry white wine

handful of rosemary

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1 tbsp of unsalted butter

100g grana padano

pinch of cinnamon

1. Mix the mince with a generous grind of cracked black pepper, salt and nutmeg. Rest in the fridge overnight to let the flavours develop.

2. Bring the stock to a gentle boil.

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3. In a separate pan, saute the onion and garlic in olive oil over a medium heat. When the onion starts to brown, add the rice and stir well, until every grain is coated and heated well. Add the wine, wait for it to evaporate and slowly add the hot stock and rosemary. Cook without stirring for about 12 minutes.

4. Add the mince, stir gently with a wooden spoon and cook for another six or seven minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and add the butter and the cheese. Incorporate well, adjust the salt and add a pinch of ground cinnamon just before serving.

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