TNT & Classic: Risotto alla Milanese straight from Milano, Italy

[RDG]

you must have a winning recipe for Risotto alla Milanese, don't you? I can make a nice one but I would love to see an authentic recipe from an authentic Milanese!!

Every your desire is a command for me….
Only, I don’t post the "true" recipe of risotto alla milanese, because it’s practically impossible to do: officially, you would have to do a broth with seven (?) kinds of meat….
For four persons:
Fry slightly in 40 gr. butter (not oil) an onion sliced very thin and about 100-150 grams of marrow. The onion must become transparent, not brown. In the same time, put 350 gr rice , and toast them for a couple of minutes, revolving it very often. After this, pour a glass of good white wine, and let it quickly evaporate.
A part, you had prepared a couple litres of meat broth (with cubes is ok). Now, you must add broth as soon as necessary, till rice is just covered, adding it many times in the same way till rice is well cooked (about 20 minutes).
Just at the last moment, add a couple of spoons of broth, if necessary, and (I don’t know the quantities you can find) one envelope of saffron every two persons. Switch off the fire.
Out of fire, add about 30 grams butter, mixing it. Be careful: the rice must remain, we say, "all’onda", like a wave, i.e. fluent, not dried.
Officially, you have to serve it with grated parmesan a part on the dish, and take a portion of rice on the fork, putting the point of fork on the cheese, so you can taste both flavours and tastes separately.
Don’t worry, it is good even if you mix them….
The best and more traditional dish to serve together is "marrowbones". I’ll put the recipe in a second time if you are interested in. It’s a dish you find only in Lombardia region, near Milano.
The difference between Risotto "alla milanese" and other recipes is in toasting. In other traditions, rice is not toasted: this process causes the rice skin to break, and allow it to absorb the condiments and flavours.
A little curiosity, if you like….Do you know why saffron has had so a big fortune, in the same way of paned food?
Since about 1300, in Italy there was the use to add thin gold leaves on the food (many international chefs do the same just now). Of course, for meals served for nobles and very rich people. Poor people were not able to have it on the table, so they tried to imitate the yellow of the gold with other materials. Saffron and paning.

 

[urmaniac13]

GNAM!!!!
Thanks Rob, I knew I could count on you with this one!! I heard about using the marrow somewhere on this recipe but I wasn't sure what to do with that... I have to ask Cris where I can get it...is it readily available from regular macelleria??
We were not aware of the proper technique re: parimigiano... we just pour it all over! We are going to try it this way the next time!!
And Grazie for the historical trivia!! I didn't know that one either!!

 

[RDG]

Sure you can. Marrow is taken off from the marrowbones, that are part of the leg. Normally it's put off, beacuse nobody eats the bones.You only have to tell it to your butcher(?) macelleria. The legs are the part for the dish I was speaking of.
Oh, before someone of you could have some doubt....
They have no common points with the fact of madcow: they are not spinal marrow....

 

[urmaniac13]

Oh, before someone of you could have some doubt....
They have no common points with the fact of madcow: they are not spinal marrow....

That's good to know... that concern sort of crossed my mind, too... thanks for the clarification!!

Sei troppo forte!!

 

[Gretchen]

Another secret to good risotto is to use a very wide pan for the cooking.

 

[urmaniac13]

Also stir often to avoid having the rice sticking to the bottom... if you are making a larger amount the pot with automatic stirring gadget comes in handy...

The reason you add the broth in small amounts repeatedly is to attain the effect of having each morsel of rice covered with flavour and rich texture. This is not quite possible if the whole amount of liquid is poured all at once, covered and simply steamed.

 

[buckytom]

automatic stirrer? sounds cool, leave it to the italians.

thanks for the recipe and tips rdg. i like the idea of the rice splitting a little to absorb flavors.

 

[urmaniac13]

automatic stirrer? sounds cool, leave it to the italians..

You have never seen them?
We have one of those, it is a large pot with removable electric gadget attached, with a metal handle positioned just slightly off the bottom that will keep on rotating slowly while the food is cooking. We don't use it very often as usually it's just two of us, and if the amount is that little, it is more efficient to stir manually with wooden spoon though... but when we cook for guests and there are other things to do apart from standing over the stove, it comes in very handy!!

 

[buckytom]

i'm gonna have to check them out urm, thanks.

 

[urmaniac13]

This is the image of our pot, Bucky, if this helps anything for your search... I am not sure how it is formally called in English!!

 

[RDG]

Urmaniac, the automatic stirrer is generally for polenta. In polenta dish, you have to stir practically continuosly: for a couple of hours ( if you are doing the true one). So, an authomatic gadget is wellcome. But for risotto...it's enough you stir every minute or two, just a turn up tu revolve the rice, that must be cooked at a very low flame.....The one you have put online seems to be a stirrer for icecreams....But, in everyway, stirrer is a stirrer.

 

[urmaniac13]

Yes, we have used this for polenta, too... then we discovered the instant polenta which gives us pretty satisfying result, thus we started to cheat... Yes maybe it is up to personal preference when it comes to a matter of stirring every 1 or 2 minutes over less than half an hour, but I am often doing something else while it is cooking and it is a bit of hassle having to keep coming back to it, especially when guests are coming... so personally I found it useful in certain occasions.
Our ice cream maker has a blade quite different from that... it looks like this

you can sort of see the blade... it sticks out towards both sides... thus I never thought of any resemblance to an ice cream mixer!!

 

[ironchef]

The difference between Risotto "alla milanese" and other recipes is in toasting. In other traditions, rice is not toasted: this process causes the rice skin to break, and allow it to absorb the condiments and flavours.

By other traditions, do you mean other risotto recipes in the Milan/Lombardia region or just in general throughout Italy? The reason I'm asking is because the Italian chef that I worked under always toasted the rice for our risotto dishes whether it was for the alla Milanese, the Risotto ai Fruitti di Mare, the Risotto ai Funghi Misti, etc. He was born and raised in the Puglia region, and trained in restaurants in Umbria, Toscana, Lazio, and Abruzzo. Maybe this was just his personal preferrence.

 

[RDG]

By other traditions, do you mean other risotto recipes in the Milan/Lombardia region or just in general throughout Italy? .

May be that, all the times I speak of "traditions", I don't use the correct word . Milano and the north of Italy are, here, the biggest producers (and consumers) of rice, at the same way in which the south does the same for pasta (it's a generalization, but rather correct). Since centuries ago, ancient (traditional) recipes in north are composed with rice, and, in the south, with pasta.
Even around Milano, (Cremona, Mantova, the whole Piemonte ) the ancient recipes don't use toasting. After that, in more than 500 years, many regions have adopted the (good) uses of others. And toasted rice is one of this: risotto becomes better . I don't know WHO effectively, used the first toasting in History; but, in every way, now the process is a common thing to do a good (better) risotto. And, for this, is adopted all over Italy. You have to consider that it's not a process that "change" a recipe, but only a way to cook rice in a more tasty way.
There are hundreds and hundreds recipes for very, very good risotti, and many of them don't use toasting: some of them only boiling.

 

[RDG]

A little gift; this is the simplest one I know, and it's excellent.
4 persons:
Boil (only boil) 350 gr. of rice in a big high pan with a lot of salted water for about 20 minutes, or, in every way, at your taste. Drain well, and let it dry out a bit, so each morsel will be separated: if necessary, put the rice in the oven for a couple of minutes.
A part, you have fried in evoo ( 10 spoons about) a good quantity of very fresh parsley. Just a minute, not more: don't burn it....
Add this over the rice, with grated parmesan.....More difficult to say than to do, and the result is over your thoughts....

 

[ironchef]

May be that, all the times I speak of "traditions", I don't use the correct word . Milano and the north of Italy are, here, the biggest producers (and consumers) of rice, at the same way in which the south does the same for pasta (it's a generalization, but rather correct). Since centuries ago, ancient (traditional) recipes in north are composed with rice, and, in the south, with pasta.
Even around Milano, (Cremona, Mantova, the whole Piemonte ) the ancient recipes don't use toasting. After that, in more than 500 years, many regions have adopted the (good) uses of others. And toasted rice is one of this: risotto becomes better . I don't know WHO effectively, used the first toasting in History; but, in every way, now the process is a common thing to do a good (better) risotto. And, for this, is adopted all over Italy. You have to consider that it's not a process that "change" a recipe, but only a way to cook rice in a more tasty way.
There are hundreds and hundreds recipes for very, very good risotti, and many of them don't use toasting: some of them only boiling.

Thank you VERY much for that detailed explanation. It was very educational and helpful!

 

[urmaniac13]

A little gift; this is the simplest one I know, and it's excellent.
4 persons:
Boil (only boil) 350 gr. of rice in a big high pan with a lot of salted water for about 20 minutes, or, in every way, at your taste. Drain well, and let it dry out a bit, so each morsel will be separated: if necessary, put the rice in the oven for a couple of minutes.
A part, you have fried in evoo ( 10 spoons about) a good quantity of very fresh parsley. Just a minute, not more: don't burn it....
Add this over the rice, with grated parmesan.....More difficult to say than to do, and the result is over your thoughts....

Rob this sounds really good... do you think it would work with some left over rice? Like it is done when you make fried rice/or riso cantonese?? Rice will be more dry this way and maybe good for frying... what do you think?

When I learned the toasting technique of rice, I liked the result so much now I do it with any risotto recipe!! It is just a whole different story and gives a wonderful flavour and texture!!

 

[RDG]

Left over? Do you mean the rice you haven't eated the day before? I don't think so. The curious matter of this (stupid) recipe is the simple boiled rice. Moreover, rice should be drained, but non absolutely dried. A little humidity is really good for mixing parmesan.
This recipe makes part of a little number that I call "no-recipes". So simple that is useless to write them: it's only enough to know they exist.
In the years, I've developped a theory on "no-recipes": they must be simple, but not obtained with the food remained in fridge: they must be studied. And the result must be much better of what you can have imagined before.
Man has often found "no-recipes": some of them have become classic. Cheese and pears, f.i....
There is a proverb in italy, that I try to translate in English, manteining the form of poetry..Excuse me in advance...
"Dont't bring to farmer's ears/how much is good/ the cheese with pears".

 

[buckytom]

rdg, how do you say that in italian?

lol, that's probably a regional thing, not that i'm saying something new about italy. most italian pears come from emilia-romagna in the north.

i wonder what kind of cheese is customary?

and don't forget the chocolate!

 

[RDG]

"al contadino non far sapere/ quant'è buono il formaggio con le pere"
All the tasty cheeses, provolone, pecorino, parmigiano, taleggio, branzi, not the light ones as mozzarella, robiola.
good appetite...