Let Them Eat Risotto
As this is a food blog, I do like to write about foodie experiences as a whole. Restaurants, markets, recipes, experiments gone wrong, etc. Every once in a while, though, I do like to share something special. Well, at least it's special to me. Now, you'll never get recipes like my chowder, which I hold higher than a damn state secret, but risotto is something that needs to be shared with the world. So here it is, for the very first time in its entirety: My Spinach and Mushroom Risotto with Pancetta. As always, the better the ingredients, the better the risotto, but I work with what I can on this tiny island and a few weeks ago we came up with something that I was quite pleased with. This is NOT my best risotto (again, state secret), but this will at least get you started. Ingredients are as follows:
1 Bag of fresh spinach
Generous amount of mushrooms (generous amount is the technical term. Back off.)
2 Cups Arborio rice
4 Cups water
2 Cups milk
Hand-sized chunk of Mull of Kintyre, shredded (size of hand may vary. Find the biggest hands in the room and go with that.)
1 Cup Italian pancetta
Raspberry balsamic vinegar
Butter
Saffron
Seasoning, as desired (I prefer salt, pepper, and a little garlic powder.)
First, chop up the spinach and mushrooms into bite size pieces. Toss these into your large saute pan. If you don't have a large saute pan, you should stop now and go buy one. When you get home, wash it out and start again. While it doesn't necessarily help to name your saute pan, it certainly doesn't hurt. I call mine Steve the Risotto Pan. Anywho. Chop them spinaches and mushrooms up and toss them in Steve. Or Susan. Or whatever. Toss in a big chunk of butter, and generously drizzle some raspberry balsamic vinegar over it. Here is a picture showing how big the butter chunk should be, as well as a reasonably large hand to base your chunk of cheese on:
Notice the smaller frying pan in the upper right hand corner. It doesn't have a name. But it does have a purpose. Start frying your pancetta up now. Also, take a pinch of saffron, and put it in your first cup of water, preferably warm.
Once the butter has melted, you're going to want to saute the mushrooms and spinach in their butter/raspberry goodness until they reduce a bit. Here's what that should look like:
After that has reduced a bit, toss in the 2 cups of Arborio rice. Yes, yes, I know, there's a big movement right now in the risotto world AWAY from Arborio toward the more expensive Carnaroli. They're also making it runny instead of thick. Well they can have my Arborio when they pry it from my cold dead hands. And I'll start making runny risotto when Keira Knightley agrees to run away with me. Until then, old words are the best words. And the old words say, "use the damn Arborio.
"We obey." (in my very best Dalek voice)
So you've tossed in the Arborio rice (because you're old school and you know what a damn VCR is) with the mushrooms and the spinach. It's okay to let it get a teensy weensy bit of a crisp to it (the rice, that is), but DO NOT let it start to brown. Risotto gets its thickness from releasing the starch in the rice, and if you brown it, you seal in the starch. So after sauteing the rice and mushroom and spinach, pour in the first cup of water with the saffron when it looks something like this:
After adding the water, it will look something like this:
This, for me, is the important part: adding the water 1 cup at a time. I ruined so many risottos before finding this out. Occasionally stir, but wait until the water has been soaked up by the rice before adding the next cup. Do this with all four cups of water. Somewhere in this process, the pancetta will be done. Take it out of the skillet and strain the grease from it.
Once all four cups of water have been absorbed, pour in the two cups of milk and plop the shredded cheese right on top, like so:
Stir in the cheese and milk to the concoction, and add the pancetta. It will look a bit gloopish (another technical term. You'll catch on) for a bit while the milk is absorbed, and note that it will generally take a little bit longer than the water. Observe:
This is where you would season, as desired, and depending on what you like your risotto to taste like. Salt is generally a must, but you should experiment. Anywho. Stir and stir some more, until you have a solid mass of risotto. The finished product should look like so:
And on the plate, which offers a better view of the consistency you should shoot for, unless you're a communist:
Keep in mind that this stuff is hearty. I have no idea why they call things hearty that will likely cause a heart attack. I suppose because deathy just doesn't sound appealing for food.So there you have it, a tried and true risotto recipe for you to enjoy. Don't be ashamed if you ruin it the first five or six times. God knows I did. The important thing is to be fearless in the kitchen and try things you normally wouldn't. Foodies never die. That is all.