Conquering an Italian Nightmare – 2
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I love the simplicity of this – risotto rice comes from regions of northern Italy like Lombardy, Veneto and Piedmont, so that's what they tuck into on a daily basis.
In the south of the country, wheat is in abundance so pasta is top of the menu but that's a whole different story.
Back to risotto. Planted in March, it looks like a grass when it grows and needs to be kept in water. When the rice is collected in October, the husk or outer covering is removed and the whole grains are stone–polished to get rid of the bran layer and make it ready to cook with.
There are two major risotto rices, carnaroli and vialone nano, which we all had difficulty pronouncing and named them the c–one and the v–one.
Valentina said the c–one was her favourite and this works well for smoother, lighter risotto, say with saffron or wine.
The v–one is a chunkier grain, which contains a lot of starch, and this is good for making thicker risottos and ones with meat.
Valentina said: "Getting the correct rice is one of the key steps to making a good risotto. If you don't have good rice you can't get the creaminess that you're after."
Luckily, we had Carluccio's risotto rice, the c–one, to use and so we were already ahead of the game.
There were cooking "stations" set up for us at the front of the restaurant, which seemed a bit public, but we did look the part in our Carluccio's aprons standing by our mini gas stoves.
I was pleased, and a little relieved, to see that all the ingredients had been measured and laid out for us down to a tub of perfectly chopped red onion.
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| Source: THIS IS LOCAL LONDON – ©2007 THIS IS LOCAL LONDON |
- Related articles:
- Risotto al Barolo: An Italian Creation for the Soul – January 13, 2007
- Risotto Revelation – November 26, 2007
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