Roberto’s Risotto alla Milanese
Making the world-famous Italian dish Risotto alla Milanese at home is not difficult at all. Risotto is a simple dish with few ingredients, which is why it is important that all the ingredients are of the best quality. They are not always easy to find—for example, saffron—but SOUS has found the perfect solution. They provide a Risotto alla Milanese package containing the very best products through hospitality supplier Vanilla Venture. Get this recipe ready and from now on you can make Risotto alla Milanese at home just like in the very best Italian restaurants.
The birth of Risotto alla Milanese
A lovely story, by the way, about the birth of the classic risotto dish. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, eating gold-coloured food was a sign of prosperity. An anecdote has it that, during the decoration of Milan Cathedral, the various statues, stained-glass windows and paintings were decorated with saffron and gold. One day, the workers involved in the decoration cooked risotto with saffron and gold leaf for a colleague’s birthday. And you can guess the rest: Risotto alla Milanese was born.
Frying rice at a high temperature
More recently, in the 1980s, chef Gualtiero Marchesi began garnishing Risotto alla Milanese with edible gold leaf as a reference to this historical anecdote. Marchesi also introduced a new technique: he fried the rice at a high temperature and the onion at a low temperature. This was intended to prevent the onion from colouring. By separating the two processes, he sparked an intense debate. Deliciously Italian, I think, these kinds of anecdotes.
SOUS Risotto alla Milanese package
Enough talk, let’s get started! Risotto alla Milanese is a mouth-watering composition of the very best risotto rice, butter, dry white wine, meat stock, onion, Parmesan and saffron. SOUS’s Risotto alla Milanese package contains only top-quality ingredients (apart from the meat stock, butter and onion, which you still need to add yourself), but no recipe.
That is why we are using the Risotto alla Milanese recipe we received from Roberto Payer (from the Italian restaurant Roberto’s in Amsterdam). From the package, we take out a tin of Acquerello risotto rice (carnaroli rice, of course), a block of Parmesan, a bottle of unfiltered olive oil from Sicily, a fancy jar of saffron and a bottle of white wine: Malvasia Bianca from Birichino from Monterey (California).
How to make Roberto’s Risotto alla Milanese
Roberto prefers the traditional version to Marchesi’s, and this is how you make such a divine Risotto alla Milanese according to Roberto:
- Put the saffron in the white wine so it can release its colour.
(Optionally, set some saffron aside to decorate the dish with). - Finely dice the onion brunoise (into very small cubes), about the same size as the rice grain. This way, the onion will practically dissolve into the dish later. In a risotto pan (if you do not have one, use a low pan with a large surface area and a thick base), fry the onion in a little olive oil over low heat.
- Add the rice and fry it for about 7–10 minutes (you should hear crackling sounds). Pour in the white wine with the saffron and let it evaporate completely.
- Pour enough veal stock over the rice so that it is just covered, and simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the rice has absorbed the stock.
Repeat this process until the rice is ‘al dente’, in about 12 minutes, depending on the size of the grains and how much moisture they can hold. - Remove the pan from the heat. Add the butter and Parmesan. Stir well. Place a lid on the pan and let everything rest for 5 minutes.
Remove the lid, check the creaminess and add water if necessary. Season with salt and pepper. - Optional: decorate the dish with some saffron.
Tip for the holidays
SOUS also sells many ready-made Christmas packages for the holidays, allowing you to conjure up a star-worthy restaurant menu in no time. A good way to avoid Christmas stress! We recently wrote about our favourite Christmas boxes, and you will also find a few SOUS Christmas boxes there.
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