Risotto is not the only way Italians prepare rice
ingredients for 4 servings (cost about 4 € pp)
- 200 g yellow foot mushrooms, cleaned
- 240 g Roma rice (if you cannot find Roma, use Carnaroli)
- 1,4 litre vegetable stock
- EV olive oil
- 1 medium onion
- Salt
- Fresh thyme
- Coarse black pepper
Rice is one of the main ingredients used in Italian cuisine, especially at the northern part of the country. Italian risotti are famous all over the world but they are not the only way Italian cooks prepare rice. There also the minestre di riso (rice soups) and also the …….. riso.
What is the difference between riso and risotto? We have already seen that all risottos start with “la tostatura” which means the precooking of the rice. During this procedure the rice starches are concentrated at the external part of the grain and after a while they escape from it to create along with fats, proteins and liquid the well known risotto texture, which means a very creamy result. This is the main difference between riso and risotto. Moreover, “riso” many times does not contain butter or parmesan, something that makes the whole preparation even less creamy. And, at last, “riso” is usually boiled or steamed and not cooked like risotto
So, to prepare a riso we just heat the stock with the onion, cut in very small dice (smaller than a rice grain), we add the rice and we continue cooking till the point the rice reaches to an al dente point. We simmer for about 18 minutes.
In a pan, very well preheated, we sauté the mushrooms in batches for a minute or two. We salt them the very last moment before we remove them from the pan. We keep warm.
While the rice is being prepared, we finely grind the cheese and we chop some thyme.
When the rice is prepared (al dente of course) we taste the salt and, if needed, we add some more. We also check that the quantity of stock in the pan is wetter than this of the risotto, if it is too dry we add some more stock.
We add some olive oil, the mushrooms and the thyme leaves.
We put in plates, we garnish with a sprig of thyme and black pepper and we serve.
