FIT DIFFERENT!

  Risotto with Barolo and Castelmagno cheese

  From Locanda Locatelli Restaurant in London,where we have the chance to work for three weeks, this is one of the best risotto in the world. This is a really healthy dish! 

Here the recipe of the chef Giorgio Locatelli !

Ingredients for 4 people:

• 400g rice,
•  5 l chicken stock ,
• 50 g butter
• 1 chopped onion
• 200 ml of Barolo wine
• salt and peppe

For the " mantecatura":

• 100 g Castelmagno cheese finely grated
• 75g cold butter cut into small dice

Bring your pot of stock to the boil, close to where you are going to make your risotto, turn down the heat and keep at a bare simmer. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed pan, and add the chopped onion. Cook gently until softened, but not coloured (about 5 minutes). Add the rice and stir to coat in the butter and "toast" the rice.

Make sure all the grains are warm, then add the Barolo. Let the wine evaporate completely, until the onions and rice are dry. Start to add the stock, a ladleful or two at a time, stirring and scraping the rice in the pan as you do so. When each addition of stock has almost evaporated, add the next ladleful. If the colour of the risotto isn't as intensely pinky red as you would like, add a little more wine.

Carry on cooking for about 15-17 minutes, adding stock continuously. After about 12-14 minutes, slow up the addition of stock, so that the rice doesn't become too wet and soupy at this stage, as when you add the butter and Castelmagno cheese at the end, it will become too sloppy. The risotto is ready when the grains are soft, but still al dente.

Turn down the heat, rest the risotto for a minute, then (for the mantecatura) with a wooden spoon, vigorously beat in the cold diced butter and finally the Castelmagno – make sure you shake the pan energetically as you beat. Season to taste.

If you like, have some spoons warming in a pan of boiling water, then pour in a little Barolo and rest a spoon on top of each plate of risotto, so that everyone can pour the warm wine over the rice – alternatively, do what we do at the restaurant, and make a little well in each plate of risotto, then at the table, pour in the wine and grate some more Castelmagno over the top.  

BUON APPETITO!