Some cooks insist that it can be also done without marrow. I am sure that they have never tried the original version!
ingredienti per 4 porzioni (costo circa 2,5 € ap)
- 1,2 liter beef stock lightly salted
- Marrow from 2 large beef bones
- 2 cucchiai di olio di semi di girasole EV
- 1 shallot, minced in dice, not larger than a rice grain
- 240 g di riso carnaroli
- Vino bianco o vermut secco
- 0,25g (a sachet ) saffron in powder
- 40 g di burro
- 40 g di Parmigiano Reggiano
The most important thing in risotto is to create a sauce with rice starch, fat and broth that must be creamy and plentiful in order to coat every grain of the cereal! According to Niko Romito the best way to prepare risotto dishes and obtain an even more creamy texture is to lightly toast the rice without oil or onion, stirring constantly till the point that the grains are too hot to hold them in our hand.
We ask our butcher to give us two large bones (better organic) of beef and to cut them in half.
We clean the bones and we roast them for 30 minutes at 200 C. Then with a small spoon we remove the marrow.
We dilute the half amount of the saffron powder in a small glass of wine or vermouth.
In a pan, with 2 tbsp of sunflower oil, we sauté the minced onion and the marrow. In one other pan we toast the rice (as we said), avoiding to over-burn it. We unite both rice and onion – marrow. We add the “saffroned” wine or vermouth and one ladle of stock. The temperature of the stock has always to be very high.
As we proceed cooking, we lower the amount of stock and we raise the stirring frequency. We check often the saltiness of the stock.
When the rice is almost done, we remove the pan from the heat and we add the butter, the cheese and the rest amount of the saffron powder (that offers a more interesting visually risotto with “points”), stirring continuously and adding (if needed) some stock.
We plate and we serve.
