Iconic as it may be, the dish is actually quite straighforward to make. You prepare risotto alla milanese much as you would a basic risotto in bianco. But it has two defining ingredients that give it its unique flavor and character. Famously, one is saffron, which lends it a beautiful gold color, as well as its knickname risotto giallo or yellow risotto.

Fewer people know, however, that a traditional risotto alla milanese also includes beef marrow. The marrow lends a beefy background flavor to the dish, as well as a subtle richness and unctuousness. The ingredient is so characteristic of the dish that I have seen it listed on menus in Milan as risotto al midollo. (The word ‘midollo‘ being Italian for bone marrow.)

Risotto alla milanese is commonly served together with ossobuco, as a piatto unico. It’s one of the very few examples of rice serving as a side dish in traditional Italian cookery. But it is equally wonderful on its own as aprimo piatto.

Ingredients 

Serves 4-6 people

For making the soffritto:

• 40-50g (3 Tbs.) butter (plus a bit more for the mantecatura)
• 40-50g (1-1/2 or 2 oz.) bone marrow, removed from the bone (see Notes) and finely chopped
• 1 onion or 2 shallots, finely chopped

For toasting the rice:

• 400g (7 oz.) rice for risotto, preferably Carnaroli or Vialone Nano (see Notes)
• A splash of white wine

For the simmer:

• 1 liter (1 qt.) broth, approximately, as needed
• A pinch of saffron threads or two small packets of saffron powder

For the mantecatura:

• 50-60g (2 oz) grated parmesan cheese, plus some more to serve at table
• A good knob of butter

Instructions

Grind the saffron threads in a mortar and pestle, then add warm water or broth. Let infuse for at least 15 minutes, better if longer. (See Notes) If using saffron powder, smply dissolve it in warm water or broth.

Prepare the soffritto

Sauté the onion or shallots and chopped bone marrow very gently in the butter until the marrow has melted and the onion has softened and turned traslucent.

Toast the rice

Raise the heat to medium and add the rice. Let it sauté in the soffritto until it turns a chalky white. Take care that neither the onion or the rice browns.

Add a splash of white wine and let it evaporate.

Simmer the rice in broth

Proceed with the risotto in the usual way, adding a ladleful of broth to the rice and simmering until it evaporates. Then add another ladle at a time, repeating the process until your rice is al dente.

About halfway through the cooking process (or if you prefer a more assertive flavor, about 5 minutes before the rice is done) add the saffron and its soaking liquid. Continue to cook as usual.

The final mantecatura (butter and cheese enrichment)

While the rice is stlll fairly brothy, turn off the heat and add the grated parmigiano-reggiano and a knob of butter.

Stir the rice around vigorously for a minute or two, until the butter and cheese have completely melted into the rice and the rice has developed a creamy texture.

Pour on to a serving dish and serve right away.

Notes on risotto alla milanese

The usual tips on making risotto apply. See our post Risotto: The Basic Recipe for details.

I personally prefer my risotto alla milanese—all risotti if I’m honest—quite loose or all’onda as the Italians call it. But if you like a tighter texture, you can let your risotto rest covered for a minute or two before serving.

Choosing your rice

As for the rice, we’ve covered the three main varieties before, but to recap: Arborio, which is the easiest to find here in North America and usually least expensive of the three, will certainly work. But Carnaroli is the more typical choice. You will also find recipes calling for Vialone nano, which is an excellent risotto rice typical of the Veneto but also grown around Mantova in Lombardy . For details on the different types of risotto rice, check out my post on the Italian Pantry and Risotto: The Basic Recipe.

On Saffron

Saffron, as we all know, it very expensive, but a little goes a long way. It is sold in threads (the stigma of the crocus flower) or ground into powder. For purists, threads are the way to go, but for best results don’t add them directly to the dish. Per the recipe above, grind them first in a mortar in pestle, then soak the resulting powder for at least 15 minutes in hot water or broth. The long the better in fact—some cooks recommend overnight, though that strikes me as overkill.

If you go with store bought saffron powder, do be sure it’s actually saffron. Some powders are plain fake or include extraneous ‘filler’ or substitute ingredients. While less necessary, I find it also helps to dissolve the powder in hot water or broth before adding it, though unlike the threads it doesn’t need soaking.

Bone marrow

All bones have marrow, of course, but there are particular good marrow bones (also often called soup bones) that you can buy sawed in half to expose the marrow.

To prepare bone marrow for use in risotto, I like to simmer the marrow bones for just a minute or two to loosen the marrow a bit. You can also roast it in a hot (200C/400F) oven for say 5-10 minutes. Then, using a small spoon or knife, scrape out the marrow from the bone. Depending on how long you’ve simmered or roasted the bone, the marrow may also just slip out on its own.

Now for those of you who may be a bit squeamish about bone marrow, it can be left out of the dish. I’d recommend adding some additional butter during the mantecatura to make up for it. What you will have made is more properly called risotto allo zafferano rather than a true risotto alla milanese—but it will still be delicious.

Broth

In a risotto as simple as this one, homemade broth is (almost) a must. Traditionally the broth is made from beef, but I actually prefer a slightly lighter broth. made with mix of chicken and beef. Its lighter color also lends a brighter gold color to the risotto.

Cooking fat

The traditional cooking fat for making a risotto alla milanese is butter. That said, many modern recipes call for oil for making the soffritto, with a knob of butter for the mantecatura at the end. The difference in taste is pretty negligible.

Using a Pressure Cooker

Like other risotti, risotto alla milanese lends itself nicely to pressure cooking.

You proceed as above until the point where you add the wine and let it evaporate. Then, instead of adding the broth little by little, you add all the broth in one go—a good rule of thumb here is two parts broth for each one part rice by volume—then cover and pressure cook the rice for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it rest for 2 minutes, then release the pressure.

You then proceed to the final mantecatura. If the rice has absorbed all the broth, add a small ladleful or so to loosen it, along with the butter and cheese.

Now, of course, with this method you can’t add saffron midway through simmering. I usually add it along with the broth, so the saffron has a good chance to infuse the rice, but for a more saffron-forward risotto alla milanese, you could add it when you open the pot after pressure cooking, perhaps letting simmer for a minute or two before the final mantecatura.

Variations

While the basic recipe for risotto alla milanese is quite stable across recipes, there are a good number subtle variations to this dish you can try out as you like:

The broth

• The broth is typically a rich beef broth. But I usually use a mixed meat broth. You could also use a chicken broth or a vegetable broth, or even lightly salted water.

The soffritto and toasting the rice

• I’m also quite fond of using shallot instead of onions for the soffritto.
• To avoid burning or browning, some chefs toast the rice and sauté the onion separately. They then add the sautéed onion to the rice (or vice versa) before proceeding with the wine. With this method, the rice is sometimes toasted dry, i.e. without any fat.
• In a variation on the above, the famed Milanese chef Gualtiero Marchesi would sauté the onion separately, adding white wine and allowing the onion to simmer in the wine until creamy. He would then add the resulting onion cream to the rice just before serving. He said it lent ‘acidity and aroma’ to his risotto.
• According to some sources, the original recipe for risotto alla milanese omits the wine.

The bone marrow

• As noted above, not all recipes for risotto alla milanese call for bone marrow. But if you omit it, purists will say you should call your dish a risotto allo zafferano.
• A foodie friend told me about a deliciously different way to use the bone marrow: Rather than adding it to the soffritto, you roast the bone marrow in a very hot (230C/450F) oven for 10-15 minutes, then use the roasted marrow instead of butter during the mantecatura. This lends a rich and beefy umami flavor to the risotto.

And, for a really different take on risotto alla milanese, you could try composer Giuseppe Verdi’s version. Among other things, he added his cheese midway through simmering and the saffron at the very end of cooking, just before serving.

A Brief History of Risotto alla milanese

Risotto alla milanese is an ancient dish, with its origins going back to the Middle Ages.

One legend has it that it was invented during the construction of the Duomo, by a glassmaker named Valerio di Fiandra. He was nicknamed ‘Zafferano’ (Saffron) because he used to color his stained glass using that spice. Well, one day he decided to flavor his risotto with his favorite spice—and the rest is history. Other sources trace the recipe further back, to the Middle Ages and kosher cookery imported to Milan by Sicilian merchants.

The first written recipe we have dates only to 1829, in a cookbook entitled Nuovo cuoco milanese economico, written by Giovanni Felice Luraschi. His recipe includes, in addition to saffron of course, beef both bone marrow and sausage. He called it risotto giallo in padella, a knickname which, as noted at the top, is still used.

Making ahead and leftovers

Like all risotti, you should eat your risotto as soon as you make it. Even after a few minutes, it loses its lovely creamy texture. That said, if you must, you can prepare the rice halfway through simmering, while the rice is still very underdone. Remove the saucepan from the heat and lay the rice out in a thin layer on a baking sheet so it cools down quickly. When you’re ready to eat, put the rice back in a saucepan along with a ladleful of hot broth and finish the dish. It will probably have cooked further as it cools, so it may not need much if any further simmering. In that case you can proceed directly to the final mantecatura.

Leftover risotto alla milanese can be made al salto, which is to say fried in butter on both sides to form a kind of pancake.

Print

Risotto alla milanese

Milanese Style Risotto

Servings 6

Calories 378.1kcal

Ingredients

For making the soffritto:

• 40-50 g butter (plus a bit more for the mantecatura)
• 40-50 g bone marrow, removed from the bone finely chopped
• 1 onion or 2 shallots finely chopped

For toasting the rice:

• 400 g rice for risotto preferably Carnaroli or Vialone Nano
• A splash of white wine

For the simmer:

• 1 liter broth approximately, as needed
• 1 pinch saffron threads or two small packets of saffron powder

For the mantecatura:

• 50-60 g freshly grated parmesan cheese plus some more to serve at table
• 2 Tbs butter

Metric – US

Instructions

• Grind the saffron threads in a mortar and pestle, then add warm water or broth. Let infuse for at least 15 minutes, better if longer. (See Notes) If using saffron powder, smply dissolve it in warm water or broth.

Prepare the soffritto

• Sauté the onion or shallots and chopped bone marrow very gently in the butter until the marrow has melted and the onion has softened and turned traslucent.

Toast the rice

• Raise the heat to medium and add the rice. Let it sauté in the soffritto until it turns a chalky white. Take care that neither the onion or the rice browns.
• Add a splash of white wine and let it evaporate.

Simmer the rice in broth

• Proceed with the risotto in the usual way, adding a ladleful of broth to the rice and simmering until it evaporates. Then add another ladle at a time, repeating the process until your rice is al dente.
• About halfway through the cooking process, or if you prefer a more assertive flavor, about 5 minutes before the rice is done, add the saffron and its broth. Continue to cook as usual.

The final mantecatura (butter and cheese enrichment)

• While the rice is stlll fairly brothy, turn off the heat and add the grated parmigiano-reggiano and a knob of butter.
• Stir the rice around vigorously for a minute or two, until the butter and cheese have completely melted into the rice and you’ve developed a creamy texture.
• Pour on to a serving dish and serve right away.

Nutrition

Calories: 378.1kcal | Carbohydrates: 56.9g | Protein: 7.7g | Fat: 12.8g | Saturated Fat: 7.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3.1g | Cholesterol: 30.2mg | Sodium: 870.4mg | Potassium: 88mg | Fiber: 2.2g | Sugar: 2.3g | Vitamin A: 705.9IU | Vitamin C: 1.4mg | Calcium: 107.6mg | Iron: 3mg

The post Risotto alla milanese (Milanese Style Risotto) appeared first on Memorie di Angelina.

It’s a dish where ingredients that often turn up in southern Italian cookery as supporting flavorings—anchovies, capers and olives—take on the starring role as a savory dressing for pasta. You could see this dish as a kind of tomatoless spaghetti alla puttanesca. But it goes a step further—once dressed, the pasta is fried on both sides, just like an egg frittata, until it forms a golden crust. With tons of umami and a lovely contrast of textures between the crunchy crust and delicate interior, frittata di scammaro is simple but delicious. Fasting never tasted so good…

The following recipe comes from Jeanna Caròla Francesconi’s classic La cucina napoletana. She got her recipe for frittata di scammaro from the famed 19th century Neapolitan gastornome Ippolito Cavalcanti’s La cucina teorica-pratica, one of the most important compendia of Neapolitan cookery and our first written source for this recipe. It’s said to have been a favorite of actor and playwright Edoardo de Filippo, who I’ve written about in this post.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 500g (1 lb) vermicelli, spaghetti or spaghettini
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, peeled and lightly crushed
• 50g (2 oz) anchovy fillets
• 75g (2-1/2 oz) black Gaeta style olives, roughly chopped
• 50g (2 oz) capers, well rinsed and squeezed dry
• A few sprigs of fresh parsley, finely minced
• olive oil
• salt

Optional:

• 25g (1 oz) pine nuts
• 25g (1 oz) raisins, soaked in warm water until soft and squeezed dry

Directions

Cook and dress the pasta

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to the boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente.

Meanwhile, in a skillet, gently sauté the garlic until just lightly brown around the edges. Remove and then add the anchovies, capers and chopped olives, and (if using) the pine nuts and raisins. Let them sauté gently as well, just until the anchovies have melted. Then turn off the heat.

When the pasta is done, transfer it to the skillet and toss, together with the minced parsley.

Fry the frittata

Now heat another skillet preferably non stick of seasoned carbon steel. When it’s hot, drizzle in some olive oil, then add the pasta and its dressing.

Even out the pasta as much as you can, then let it fry undisturbed until it forms a golden brown crust on the bottom, just like you would an egg frittata. Try to brown the bottom as well as the sides as evenly as you can manage, tipping the skillet if need be to brown the sides if the pasta is particularly thick.

When the bottom has browned nicely, flip the frittata over and, after adding another drizzle of oilve oil to the skillet, brown it on the other side as well.

Serve

Slide the frittata onto a serving plate and serve while still warm or at room temperature.

Notes on frittata di scammaro

The usual tips on making a frittata also apply here. See this post for details.

While you don’t need to worry about cooking the insides as you would an egg frittata, do try to judge the heat so the pasta forms a nice golden crust without actuallly burning. So as with an egg frittata, low to moderate heat in best. And while you should mostly leave the pasta alone as it browns, you can peek underneath from time to time by lifting the edge with a spatula.

Francesconi provides rather detailed instructions about how to brown this frittata evenly, telling you to tip and rotate the skillet so each part of the bottom and sides gets direct contact with the flame. Obviously this isn’t strictly necessary if you’re cooking on an induction cooktop or have a gas cooktop with ringed burners. But if your frittata is rather thick, you may still find you need to tilt the skillet to brown the sides.

The only real tricky part of making a frittata di scammaro, just like an egg frittata, is flipping it over once it’s browned on the bottom. There are a few different ways to go about it. See my pointers in this post, but I would not use the broiler method for this kind of pasta.

As for the measurements, take them with the proverbial grain of salt. When it come to the anchovies, olives and capers in particular, I’ve given you Francesconi’s measurements as a reference, but I’d just eyeball it to your taste. And speaking of salt, do be careful to salt the pasta water only lightly in this case, as the flavorings are all quite savory.

Pasta

You make this frittata with long pasta shapes like vermicelli, spaghetti or spaghettini aka ‘thin spaghetti’. Francesconi’s recipe calls for vermicelli, a pasta shape typical Neapolitan cookery. It is very much like spaghetti but for those who only know it abroad, be aware that in Naples vermicelli are actually a bit thicker, not thinner, than regular spaghetti.

Do not attempt to make a frittata di scammaro with short pasta. It would no doubt taste good, but without egg to bind it, the frittata will just fall apart.

Anchovies

Anchovies come packed either in salt (sotto sale) or olive oil (sott’olio). Salted anchovies are packed whole, they generally come in large cans They need to be rinsed of their salt, then filleted. Oil packed anchovies come in fillets, so you can use them right out of the jar or can, drained of their excess oil.

Either kind of anchovy will do for making a frittata di scammaro. There are those who say salt packed anchovies are superior to those packed in olive oil. But while there are admittedly some poor quality canned anchovies around, I don’t find there to be much difference—provided you look for oil packed anchovies from a quality brand like Delfino or Agostino Recca. Here in North America, you can also find some excellent Spanish anchovies in oil, like those from Ortiz. One telltale sign: better quality anchovies usually come in jars rather than cans.

Capers

In Italian cookery, the most famous capers come from the small volcanic island of Pantelleria between Sicily and Tunisia, which enjoy indicazione geografica protteta or IGP status.

Capers come packed in salt or brine. Here I find that the ones in salt, though harder to find, really are superior for most uses, including this one. The prized Pantelleria capers are always sold sotto sale. Salt packed capers taste, well, of themselves while brine packed capers taste mostly of their brine, quite vinegary. While both will do, if you can find salt packed capers go for them. Here in North America, you can find a large 1 kilo jar of salted Pantelleria capers on this website and a smaller half kilo packet from my old reliable resource, Alma Gourmet. They’re not cheap, but they will last you for quite a while.

Variations

I haven’t been able to identify too many variations on the recipe, other than the optional addition of pine nuts and raisins. Personally I’ll go with Francesconi and leave them out, though she says that the original Cavalcanti recipe had them. Here’s the text of his recipe, little changed from today’s recipe:

Scauda tre rotole de vermicielle, ma teniente, teniente (ben al dente), li scule e li buote dinto a no tiano (recipiente) co tre mesurielle d’uoglio zoffritto co miezo quarto d’alice salate e pepe, quanno l’aje mbrogliate e asciuttate, ne miette na mità dinto a la tiella (padella) e nge miette na mbottonatura (ripieno) d’aulive senza l’osse, de chiapparielle (capperi), d’alice salate a meza a meze, passe e pignuole (uvetta e pinoli), nge miette l’auta mmità de li vermicielle e nge farraje fa la scorza (crosticina) sott’e ncoppa (sotto e sopra), facennola friere co la nzogna (sugna) o co l’uoglio.

I’ve made a few minor adjustments to Francesconi’s recipe. She tells you to sauté the olives and capers as well as the parsley before adding the anchovies. Personally, I don’t think they need to extra cooking.

By the way, the pasta itself is perfectly delicious dressed and left unfried. And if you add some tomato and perhaps a bit of hot red pepper and let them simmer together with the seasonsings before throwing in your pasta, as alluded to at the top, you’ll have a lusty dish of spaghetti alla puttanesca.

About that name ‘scammaro’

The name of this dish has an interesting monastic back story. Back in the day, Lent was a time for Catholics to abstain from meat and other rich foods. That was, of course, also true in monasteries. Older and sick monks were exempted from the fast but they had to stay in camera—in their cells—so as not to tempt the others.

Well, in old Neapolitan dialect the word for the standard Italian word camera was cammaro (camera in standard Italian). And if you’ve studied Italian, you’ll know that an initial s- in a word often (but not always) is a negative signifier a bit like dis- in English (to which it is related). So a scammarato was a monk who wasn’t confined to his cell—in other words, among those who were obligated to observed the Lenten fast. Over time, the word scammaro came to mean Lenten foods in general.

Making frittata di scammaro ahead

You can make this entirely ahead and serve at room temperature if you like. In fact, I find it tastes even better after a short rest.

Print

Frittata di scammaro

Neapolitan Lenten "Omelette"

Course Primo

Cuisine Campania

Keyword fried, meatless

Servings 6

Calories 463.8kcal

Ingredients

• 500 g 1 lb vermicelli, spaghetti or spaghettini
• 1-2 cloves of garlic peeled and lightly crushed
• 50 g 2 oz anchovy fillets
• 75 g 2-1/2 oz black Gaeta style olives, roughly chopped
• 50 g 2 oz capers, well rinsed and squeezed dry
• A few sprigs of fresh parsley finely minced
• olive oil
• salt

Optional:

• 25 g 1 oz pine nuts
• 25 g 1 oz raisins, soaked in warm water until soft and squeezed dry

Metric – US

Instructions

Cook and dress the pasta

• Bring a large pot of well salted water to the boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente.
• Meanwhile, in a skillet, gently sauté the garlic until just lightly brown around the edges. Remove and then add the anchovies, capers and chopped olives, and (if using) the pine nuts and raisins. Let them sauté as well just until the anchovies have melted. Turn off the heat.
• When the pasta is done, transfer it to the skillet and toss, together with the minced parsley.

Fry the frittata

• Now heat another skillet preferably non stick of seasoned carbon steel. When it’s hot, drizzle in some olive oil, then add the pasta and seasonings.
• Even out the pasta as much as you can, then let it fry undisturbed until it forms a golden brown crust on the bottom, just like you would a frittata. Try to brown the bottom as well as the sides as evenly as you can manage, tipping the skillet if need be to brown the sides if the pasta is particularly thick.
• When the bottom has browned nicely, flip the frittata over and, after adding another drizzle of oilve oil to the skillet, brown it on the other side as well.

Serve

• Slide the frittata onto a serving plate and serve while still warm or at room temperature.

Nutrition

Calories: 463.8kcal | Carbohydrates: 67.1g | Protein: 13.6g | Fat: 15.9g | Saturated Fat: 2.1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3.2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9.3g | Cholesterol: 5mg | Sodium: 1603.7mg | Potassium: 287.9mg | Fiber: 3.8g | Sugar: 2.5g | Vitamin A: 66IU | Calcium: 43.1mg | Iron: 2mg

The post Frittata di scammaro (Neapolitan Lenten Pasta “Omelette”) appeared first on Memorie di Angelina.

As simple as it is, this salad produces a beguilingly complex combination of contrasting colors, textures and flavors—the crunch and slight bitterness of the scarlet red radicchio, the sweet/sour of plump orange wedges, the chewy nuttiness of the walnuts and the silky, peppery bite of the olive oil.

It’s a salad I make often this time of year. I made it the other day for a friend who came for lunch, and it occurred to me that I’d never bothered to blog about it. Maybe because it’s so utterly simple, almost a non-recipe. But the combination is worth noting and, like many simple dishes, there are still some a few pointers to keep in mind including your choice of ingredients.

And if you like to mix things up, there are multiple ways to dress it up with additional components, dressings and toppings. 

Ingredients

Serves 4-6 as an antipasto or side

• 2 heads of radicchio
• 2 oranges
• A handful of walnuts, to taste

For the dressing:

• best quality olive oil
• salt, preferably fine sea salt

Directions

If using radicchio Treviso tardivo as pictured here, trim off the bottom and separate the slender leaves. If using the round Chioggia or most other varieties of radicchio, cut the head in quarters, trim off the core, then cut the leaves into strips.

Arrange the radichio leaves on individual serving plates or in a salad bowl.

Peel the orange and trim off any stray filaments and pith. Separate the sections (you can cut each section in half lengthwise if very large) and arrange them on top or in between the radicchio leaves.

Crumble the shelled walnuts in your hand and sprinkle them here and there.

Drizzle with the olive oil, then sprinkle with salt to taste.

Serve right away.

Notes on insalata di radicchio arance e noci

There’s a saying in Italian that to dress a salad properly, you should be spendthrift with the oil, miserly with the vinegar and judicious with the salt. The saying certainly applies here, though you can be such a miser that you omit the vinegar altogether if you like. The oranges already provide the touch of acidity that vinegar would bring to the table, so to speak. And for me at least, it is enough. But if you do want a bit more acidity, do be discreet.

For more on dressing salads all’italiana, see this post.

Otherwise, as with any recipe as simple as this, the result will depend on your choice and the quality of ingredients.

Choosing and prepping the radicchio

Any type of radicchio you please will work, including the commonly found round Chioggia radicchio. But personally I love this salad made with Treviso, which has more delicate leaves. This time of year, you’re likely to find the unusual Treviso tardivo, with its slender leaves pictured here. They make for an even more visually striking salad.

As detailed in this post, radicchio comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes. You will prep each type slightly differently but the aim is always to end up with leaves that will blend well with your orange sections. The slender leaves of a Treviso tardivo need only be cut from the core and separated, but the larger leaves of a Treviso precoce or the common Chioggia will need to be cut into pieces. A Castelfranco, on the other hand, can be handled very much like a head of lettuce, with the leaves left whole or, if very large, torn with your hands.

Choosing and prepping the orange

Again, any type of orange will do. Orange varietals tend to be very local, but here in North America I find that the Sumos or Cara Caras are both lovely choices. They have lovely sweet favor and also peel and separate easily. You could also go with clementines or mandarin oranges.

But good old standard Navel oranges will also work just fine—but since their peel won’t come off easily, you’ll need to peel them with a knife. Trim off a bit of the top and bottom, then place the trimmed orange on a cutting board and trim off the skin by running the blade right under the sking from top to bottom. See this video for a demonstration.

Speaking of which, especially if you’re working with an orange that doesn’t separate easily, you can slice them across the grain into rounds if you prefer rather than separating the sections. Or use a knife to remove the sections by inserting the blade between sections. It’s fussy work but not difficult. Here’s a quick demo.

It’s important to remove most if not all of the pith (the white stuff under the zest) that clings to the peeled orange, as it is very bitter. But for me at least, I find a little bit of pith adds character, so I’m not meticulous about it.

Choosing the olive oil

Best quality extra virgin olive oil is critical to the success of the dish. The oil won’t just add a silky texture, but also flavor. You can follow your personal preference here, but I like a fruity oil with a rather peppery finish, which compliments well the radicchio and orange. My favorite olive oil tend to come from Puglia and Sicily.

Variations

Switching up the type of radicchio and orange already makes this a pretyy variably salad. But there’s more you can do to vary this salad:

• You can add more components to the dish. A few green lettuce leaves, for instance, or perhaps some watercress, add yet another color to the palette. A few strips of fennel adds white and a lovely anice scent.
• You could also vary the topping. Instead of or in addition to the walnuts, you could sprinkle of some pomegrante seeds.
• As for the dressing, if you want a bit more acidity, you could sprinkle a bit of white wine vinegar (not too much) or freshly squeezed lemon or orange juice. Some recipes have you make a proper vinaigrette. Freshly ground pepper adds a bit of spice. Best of all in my book, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar marries beautifully with the taste of radicchio and orange and lends a visually striking touch.

Making the salad ahead

You can arrange the components for your insalata di radicchio arance e noci ahead of time, then dress it right before serving. A few recipes will actually have you macerate the radicchio in a vinaigrette, something that doesn’t appeal to me, but I imagine that the sturdy leaves of a Chioggia would stand up fairly well to that treatment, at the cost of some of their crispness.

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Insalata di radicchio arance e noci

Radicchio Orange and Walnut Salad

Course Antipasto

Cuisine Italian

Keyword easy, quick, raw

Total Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Calories 105.9kcal

Ingredients

• 2 heads of radicchio
• 2 oranges
• A handful of walnuts to taste

For the dressing:

• best quality olive oil
• salt preferably fine sea salt

Instructions

• If using radicchio Treviso tardivo as pictured here, trim off the bottom and separate the slender leaves. If using the round Chioggia or most other varieties of radicchio, cut the head in quarters, trim off the core, then cut the leaves into strips.
• Arrange the radichio leaves on individual serving plates or in a salad bowl.
• Peel the orange and trim off any stray filaments and pith. Separate the sections (you can cut each section in half lengthwise if very large) and arrange them on top or in between the radicchio leaves.
• Crumble the shelled walnuts in your hand and sprinkle them here and there.
• Drizzle with the olive oil, then sprinkle with salt to taste.
• Serve right away.

Nutrition

Calories: 105.9kcal | Carbohydrates: 8g | Fat: 8.4g | Saturated Fat: 1.1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1.7g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5.3g | Sodium: 1744.4mg | Potassium: 129.3mg | Fiber: 1.7g | Sugar: 6.2g | Vitamin A: 147.9IU | Vitamin C: 34.9mg | Calcium: 29.4mg

The post Insalata di radicchio arance e noci appeared first on Memorie di Angelina.

Fennel is also delicious when it’s cooked. The texture changes radically, of course. Its crunchiness gives way to an almost silky softness. It also has a very different but no less appealing taste, mellower but also sweeter. Perhaps the most common way to enjoy cooked fennel in Italian cookery is gratinéed with butter and cheese. It is also lovely gratinéed with garlic, herbs and bread crumbs. But there are many other ways to enjoy it. Here on Memorie di Angelina, for instance, we’ve featured a fennel sformato as well as fennel paired with oven roasted fish. And the wild variety called finocchietto selvatico—for which you can substitute fennel stalks and fronds—lend a lovely anice flavor to the classic Sicilian pasta con le sarde.

Fennel and tomatoes: A lovely couple

Fennel also marries quite well with tomatoes. A simple way to pair them is finocchi in umido, where you braise the fennel wedges in tomato sauce. I originally thought to share that recipe with you this week, but I decided to experiment instead with something slightly more elaborate, which I’ve dubbed finocchi rifatti al pomodoro.

Taking a cue from a popular Tuscan dish made with cardoons, I parboiled fennel slices, then fried them in a flour and egg batter, and finally simmered them in simple garlic scented tomato sauce. I think the experiment was a rousing success, if I do say so myself. This ‘triple cooked’ method might be a bit more work than finocchi in umido, but your efforts will pay delicious dividends.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6 as a side

• 2 large fennel bulbs
• salt

For frying the fennel:

• all purpose flour
• 2 eggs, beaten
• olive, peanut or vegetable oil
• salt
• A spoonful or two of freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano (optional)

For the tomato sauce:

• 1 large can of crushed tomatoes, or milled peeled tomatoes, or a bottle of passata
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
• olive oil
• salt and pepper, to taste
• A fresh basil leaf (optional)

Directions

Make the tomato sauce

In a sauté pan or skillet, gently sauté the garlic in abundant olive oil. When the garlic has just begun to give off its aroma, add the milled tomatoes and, if using, the basil leaf. Season with salt and a good grind of pepper.

Simmer the tomatoes over a gentle flame for about 15-20 minutes, until they have reduced into a rich sauce or until needed.

Prep the fennel

Trim the fennel bulbs of their green stalks and peel off any brusing Then cut them vertically into slices about 1 cm (1/4 inch) thick.

Parboil the fennel slices in well salted water, about 5-7 minutes, until almost but not quite tender. Using a skimmer, lift the slices out of their cooking water and lay them on a kitchen towel to dry and cool off a bit.

Fry the fennel

Arrange two shallow bowls, one with the flour and the other with the beaten egg. In a skillet or saute pan, heat enough oil to come up perhaps 1 cm (1/2 in) deep.

When the oil is hot but not smoking, pass the slices in the flour, then in the beaten egg, then place them in the hot oil.

Fry the fennel slices until golden brown on both sides, proceeding in batched if need be.

Finish the dish

As the slices are done frying, transfer them to the tomato sauce.

Simmer the fennel slices in the sauce for 5 minutes or so to let them absorb the flavor, turning them once or twice only. If the sauce has reduced too much to cover the fennel, you can top it up with some of the fennel cooking water.

Let the dish rest off heat for a few minutes, then serve warm.

Notes on finocchi rifatti al pomodoro

When you fry the fennel slices, make sure not to crowd them in the pan. Make sure also the oil is nice and hot so they will crisp up and not get soggy. The oil should bubble up around the edges of the fennel slices, as pictured below.

Since the fennel slices are already parboiled and will cook further in the sauce, you needn’t worry too terribly much about moderating the temperature so the insides has time to cook. Do turn down the heat if the starts to smoke, but otherwise just focus on getting the slices nice and brown on the outside.

Adding the grated cheese to the egg is my little riff. It’s not part of the traditional triple cooked method. But I find it adds a barefly perceptible je ne sais quoi.

There are different ways to handle the garlic. My usual way, as regular readers will know, is to to sauté whole garlic cloves until just lightly brown around the edges and then discard them. You can certainly do that here, too. For this dish, however, I wanted a more garlic forward sauce, so I added sliced garlic and, of course, left the slices to simmer in and dissolve into the sauce.

Related dishes

The fried fennel slices are perfectly delicious on their own, sprinkled with a little salt. If you’re going this route, you could also bread them after passing them in the flour and egg, turning them into a kind of fennel cutlet.

If you want to make finocchi in umido, cut the fennel bulbs into wedges rather than slices, then add them to the garlic and oil for a few minutes to absorb their flavors. Then add the milled tomatoes and simmer until the fennel is tender and the sauce nicely reducted.

As mentioned, you can use this same method with cardoons to make the classic Tuscan dish gobbi rifatti al pomodoro. Cardoons are another favorite vegetable of mine, but where I live they’re about as hard to find as unicorns. You’ll need to prep them as outlined in this post before proceeding with the above recipe.

Regular readers may have noticed the family resemblance with another timeless Tuscan classic, sedani alla pratese. That dish uses the same triple cooked method for a much more substantial main course of stuffed celery simmered in meat sauce.

Making finocchi rifatti al pomodoro ahead

If you ask me, this dish is at its best when it’s freshly made. And after all, it only takes 30 minutes to prepare. Or make the tomato sauce and fried fennel ahead, then simmer them together for five mnutes when you’re ready to eat.

That said, if you must, you can make the dish entirely ahead and gently reheat it. Since the batter will absorb much of the sauce, add water to the skillet then bring it to a gentle simmer for, say, 5 minutes or so before serving.

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Finocchi rifatti al pomodoro

Fried Fennel in Tomato Sauce

Course Side Dish

Keyword boiled, fried, simmered, vegetable, vegetarian

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Calories 203.7kcal

Ingredients

• 2 large fennel bulbs
• salt

For frying the fennel:

• all purpose flour
• 2 eggs beaten
• oil olive oil and/or peanut oil
• salt
• 2 tbs parmigiano-reggiano freshly grated (optional)

For the tomato sauce:

• 1 large can of crushed tomatoes or milled peeled tomatoes, or a bottle of passata
• 2-3 cloves of garlic peeled and thinly sliced
• olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• A fresh basil leaf optional

Instructions

Make the tomato sauce

• In a sauté pan or skillet, gently sauté the garlic in abundant olive oil. When the garlic has just begun to give off its aroma, add the milled tomatoes and, if using, the basil leaf. Season with salt and a good grind of pepper.
• Simmer the tomatoes over a gentle flame for about 15-20 minutes, until they have reduced into a rich sauce or until needed.

Prep the fennel

• Trim the fennel bulbs of their green stalks and peel off any brusing Then cut them vertically into slices about 1 cm (1/4 inch) thick.
• Parboil the fennel slices in well salted water, about 5-7 minutes, until almost but not quite tender. Using a skimmer, lift the slices out of their cooking water and lay them on a kitchen towel to dry and cool off a bit.

Fry the fennel

• Arrange two shallow bowls, one with the flour and the other with the beaten egg. In a skillet or saute pan, heat enough oil to come up perhaps 1 cm (1/2 in) deep.
• When the oil is hot but not smoking, pass the slices in the flour, then in the beaten egg, then place them in the hot oil.
• Fry the fennel slices until golden brown on both sides, proceeding in batched if need be.

Finish the dish

• As the slices are done frying, transfer them to the tomato sauce.
• Simmer the fennel slices in the sauce for 5 minutes or so to let them absorb the flavor, turning them once or twice only. If the sauce has reduced too much to cover the fennel, you can top it up with some of the fennel cooking water.
• Let the dish rest off heat for a few minutes, then serve warm.

Nutrition

Calories: 203.7kcal | Carbohydrates: 9.3g | Protein: 5.2g | Fat: 17g | Saturated Fat: 3.1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 11.3g | Cholesterol: 83.6mg | Sodium: 3621.8mg | Potassium: 524.7mg | Fiber: 3.7g | Sugar: 4.7g | Vitamin A: 296.1IU | Vitamin C: 14.5mg | Calcium: 104.8mg | Iron: 1.4mg

The post Finocchi rifatti al pomodoro (Fried Fennel in Tomato Sauce) appeared first on Memorie di Angelina.

Well, costoletta alla valdostana from the nearby Val d’Aosta region takes that conceit to the next level. Anything labled alla valdostana will often include ham and cheese, and this dish is no exception. This bone in cutlet is first split open and stuffed with a slice of ham and several of fontina cheese, which produces a creamy, nutty and savory interior that contrasts beautifully with its golden brown crust.

I’ve made a couple of substitutions in this recipe. Traditionally a costoletta alla valdostana is made with a veal rib chop. But given the price of veal these days—one local supermarket charges a cool $33 for a single chop!—I opted for pork instead. The classic recipe also has you fry the chops entirely in butter. But given the amount of fat required, I opted for a mix of (mostly) vegetable oil to which I’ve added a generous knob of butter for flavor. This mix is also less likely to burn.

Either way, costoletta alla valdostana is worth a try. To my mind, it’s the ultimate bone in cutlet.

Ingredients

Per person

• I veal (or pork) rib chop

for the filling:

• 25g (1 oz) fontina cheese (or another meltable Alpine cheese), thinly sliced
• 1 slice of cooked ham

for the breading:

• all purpose flour, as much as needed
• 1-2 eggs, beaten
• breadcrumbs, as much as needed

for frying:

• Vegetable oil
• A large knob of butter

Directions

Prep the chop

Trim off any fat or gristle from around the edges of your chop.

Now, very carefully cut the filet in half heightwise almost but not quite all the way to the bone, so that it opens like a book.

Gently flatten each flap of the filet with a meat pounder with outward motion from the bone,, getting it as thin as you can manage without mauling it.

Season the chop generously inside and out with salt and pepper.

Filling the chop

Lay on a slice of ham and then a few slices of fontina, enough to cover one flap but leaving a perimeter around the edges.

Close the flap and then very gently pound the chop once more to seal the two flaps together.

Breading the chop

Lay out three shallow plates with flour, beaten egg and breadcrumbs.

Holding the chop with both hands and pinching the two flaps together, very gingerly dip the chop first in the flour, then the egg and finally in the breadcrumbs, making sure that it is well covered on both sides each time. Press the breadcrumbs into the meat so it adheres well.

Browning the chop

In a skillet large just enough to hold the chop, over medium-low heat vegetable oil enough to come up about 1/2 the height of your chop, along with a large knob of butter.

When the butter has completely melted and ceases bubbling, gingerly lay in the chop. Sauté until it is golden browned on one side, about 5 minutes (or possibly more for a thicker chop), then turn it and brown the other side as well for another 5 minutes or so.

Serve

Serve the chop right away, or keep warm until you’re ready to serve. Sprinkle lightly with salt just before serving.

Notes on costoletta alla valdostana

The recipe for costoletta alla valdostana involves quite a few steps, but there are only a couple of tricky bits to watch out for. The first involves making sure the two flaps of meat don’t come apart. You need to handle the uncooked split chop with some care. Once the breading cooks, it should bind them together nicely.

The other involves making sure the chop cooks through on both sides and the cheese filling melts before the breading browns too much or, God forbid, burns. Of course, the more you manage to flatten your chop, the quicker it will cook. This is more easily done with veal than pork. Otherwise, setting your flame to medium or medium-low and letting it go for 5 minutes on each side—or slightly longer for a thicker chop—should do the trick. Lower the heat further if you see the breading brown too quickly. If all else fails and you find the breading has browned but the meat is still too pink for your taste, you can pop the chop in a low oven, say 160C/325F, for a few minutes to finish it cooking on the inside.

Choosing your meat

As mentioned at the top, veal is the classic meat for making a costoletta alla valdostana, but if you can’t find a veal chop or, like me, you find the price just too extravagant, then a rib pork chop will provide an acceptable substitute. The meat won’t be quite as tender, but it provides a fine, mild flavor that works well in this recipe. Make sure to use a rib chop, as you need that bone to hold the two flaps together. A loin chop won’t work as the bone is in the middle.

For North American readers, refer to our post on cotoletta alla milanese for tips on choosing and treating North American veal.

Choosing your cheese

There are many so called fontina cheeses in the market today, but the classic and best for making costoletta alla valdostana is Fontina Val d’Aosta DOP, which has been made in Val d’Aosta region since the 12th century. It really is second to none, much finer, nuttier flavor than the various other fontinas. The commonly found type wtih the red rind is not real thing.

That said, you can turn out a perfectly edible costoletta with another meltable Alpine cheese like Emmenthal, gruyere or raclette. Perhaps change the name to costoletta Cordon Bleu, the other common moniker for dishes with ham and cheese other than a true fontina.

Variations

In some recipes you omit the ham and use only the cheese for the filling.

You can use this method to make a boneless cutlet called cotoletta alla valdostana (without the s). You place the two boneless cutlets, pounded thin, one on top of the other, with the filling in between. With a cotoletta, you can branch out into other meats as well, like chicken or turkey breast cutlets.

A quick little language lesson: a cotoletta is the Italian word for a boneless cutlet. Costoletta with an s means a bone in cutlet or chop. (From costola, which means rib.) With one notable exception—although technically incorrect, cotoletta alla milanese usually refers to a breaded chop with the bone in.

You can also make life easier for yourself by laying the ham and cheese on top of a single cutlet after it’s browned on both sides, the cover and let it cook gently for a few minutes, until the cheese melts. Here you can forego the breading and just lightly flour the cutlet on both sides.

Making costoletta alla valdostana ahead

You can prep the chop up up and though the breading, then brown it when you want to eat. This is the best way to do it, as it ensure a ince crisp crust.

If you must make this dish entirely ahead, gently reheat your chop in a very low oven (90C/200F) for about 10-15 minutes. It won’t be as nice and juicy as a freshly browned chop, but it will be perfectly edible.

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Costoletta alla valdostana

Course Main Course

Cuisine val d’aosta

Keyword fried

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 1

Calories 698.4kcal

Ingredients

• I veal or pork rib chop
• salt and pepper

for the filling:

• 25 g fontina cheese or another meltable Alpine cheese, thinly sliced
• 1 slice of cooked ham
• for the breading:
• all purpose flour as much as needed
• 1-2 eggs beaten
• breadcrumbs as much as needed

for frying:

• Vegetable oil
• A large knob of butter

Metric – US

Instructions

Prep the chop

• Trim off any fat or gristle from around the edges of your chop.
• Now, very carefully cut the filet in half heightwise almost but not quite all the way to the bone, so that it ppens like a book.
• Gently flatten each flap of the filet with a meat pounder with outward motion from the bone,, getting it as thin as you can manage without mauling it.
• Season the chop generously inside and out with salt and pepper.

Filling the chop

• Lay on a slice of ham and then a few slices of fontina, enough to cover one flap but leaving a perimeter around the edges.
• Close the flap and then very gently pound the chop once more to seal the two flaps together.

Breading the chop

• Lay out three shallow plates with flour, beaten egg and breadcrumbs.
• Holding the chop with both hands and pinching the two flaps together, very gingerly dip the chop first in the flour, then the egg and finally in the breadcrumbs, making sure that it is well covered on both sides each time. Press the breadcrumbs into the meat so it adheres well.

Browning the chop

• In a skillet large just enough to hold the chop, over medium-low heat vegetable oil enough to come up about 1/2 the height of your chop, along with a large knob of butter.
• When the butter has completely melted and ceases bubbling, gingerly lay in the chop. Sauté until it is golden browned on one side, about 5 minutes (or possibly more for a thicker chop), then turn it and brown the other side as well for another 5 minutes or so.

Serve

• Serve the chop right away, or keep warm until you’re ready to serve. Sprinkle lightly with salt just before serving.

Nutrition

Calories: 698.4kcal | Protein: 60.8g | Fat: 48.8g | Saturated Fat: 23.9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3.6g | Monounsaturated Fat: 17g | Cholesterol: 419.1mg | Sodium: 878.3mg | Potassium: 847.3mg | Vitamin A: 820.7IU | Calcium: 203.7mg | Iron: 2.7mg

The post Costoletta alla valdostana appeared first on Memorie di Angelina.

He was also an accomplished home cook. His correspondence with friends includes extensive recipes, cooking tips and sundry culinary anecdotes. Although Verdi was born in the region of Emilia-Romagna, having spent much of his career and later life in Milan, he developed a taste for the local cuisine. Apparently, he was known among his friends and acquaintances for his rendition of the city’s signature dish, risotto alla milanese. As one letter from a friend attests:

 But at the end of the second act of La favorite he was recognized and they began to shout “Viva Verdi” and everyone, from the boxes to the pit, stood up to salute the Great Composer from Le Roncole.  If only they knew how well he composes risotto alla Milanese, God knows what ovations would have showered on his shoulders!

Verdi’s Risotto alla milanese

Verdi had his own rather quirky way of making the dish. We have Verdi’s recipe because his common law wife Giuseppina wrote it down in a letter to French theater empresario and Verdi’s sometime librettist Camille Du Locle. It seems Verdi had something of a rivalry in the kitchen with an actress named Adelaide Ristori. In her letter, Giuseppina says:

“By the way, if la Ristori believes she will hold supremacy in the matter of tagliatelli, Verdi counts on eclipsing her with risotto, which truly he makes in divine fashion.”

Verdi’s recipe includes quite a few deviations from the way risotto alla milanese is usually made today. For one thing, the rice is well toasted, not just until it loses its raw look but, as Giuseppina says, until it takes on a ‘lovely golden color’. Then there is no mantecatura—that final finish offheat vigorously stirring in grated cheese and sometimes butter as well. Instead, the cheese—and lots of it—is added midway through cooking. The recipe calls for sweet white wine, which is also added midway through. Today’s recipes call either for a dry white added right after toasting the rice, or none at all. (See the Notes below for a complete run down on the many ways it differs from today’s standard recipe.)

I was intrigued, so I decided to give Verdi’s curious recipe a try.

So how was it?

Verdi’s risotto is quite tasty. My only real complaint if I have one, is that I miss the usual mantecatura. Despite the copious amounts of butter and cheese, the risotto was noticeably less creamy than I prefer. And since you add the cheese midway through the cooking process rather than at the end, it tastes, well, rather ‘cooked’, for lack of a better word. Not necessarily unpleasant, but I prefer the more delicate taste of just melted parmigiano-reggiano.

On the other hand, the sweet wine, which I thought would taste odd, didn’t bother me. In fact, it worked rather well in my opinion, at least the semi-sweet Gewürtztraminer I used. But what may have surprised me the most was the color of Verdi’s risotto— not the bright gold that one usually associates with risotto alla milanese, but the rather darker amber you see in these photos, probably from the initial browning of the rice and the use of a rich beef broth. The recipe also calls for an optional topping of truffle shavings, but I stuck to the basic recipe. Besides the astronomical price tag, I don’t actually care for the taste. Shocking, I know…

All in all, while I don’t think it will replace the standard recipe in my affections, I rather enjoyed Verdi’s recipe despite its eccentricities.

As far as I can tell, the recipe hasn’t been translated into English, so I thought I’d share it with you, dear readers. It’s definitely worth a try—perhaps while enjoying Verdi’s music. I recommend the first act of La Traviata, in my opinion some of the most glorous opera music ever composed.

Ingredients

Serves 6-8

• 2 oz (50g) butter
• 2 oz (50g) bone marrow, minced
• 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 lb (450 g) rice for risotto, preferably Carnaroli
• 2 quarts (2 liters) beef or mixed meat broth, preferably homemade
• sweet white wine
• 1-1/2 cups (100g) freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
• A small pinch of saffron
• A truffle (optional)

Directions

Bring the broth to the barest of simmers in the saucepan. In a small cup or bowl, add the saffron threads and then a few spoonfuls of hot broth. Keep the rest hot until needed,.

In a large saucier or sauté pan, gently sauté the chopped onion in the butter and bone marrow until it turns soft and translucent. Sprinkle in a few drops of water from time to time if need be to avoid browning.

Add the rice and let it sauté as well, until it is just beginning to brown.

Then add 2 or 3 ladlefuls of the broth to the rice, enough to cover the rice, give it a good stir and simmer until the broth has evaporated. Replenish it with another ladleful of broth and give it a good stir. Repeat, stirring from time to time, until the rice is cooked.

While the rice is simmering, after about 10-15 minutes, add the wine, then, a handful at a time, the grated parmigiano-reggiano.

Just before the rice is done cooking, stir in the saffron and its broth.

Remove from the heat and pour into a soup tureen. Serve immediately, optionally top with sliced truffle.

Notes on Verdi’s risotto alla milanese

Most of the tips you’ll find in our basic recipe for risotto apply here. But mutatis mutandis, as we lawyers say, given all the quirks in Verdi’s recipe, which you’ll find listed below. Other than that, success lies as always in choosing your ingredients with care.

Choosing the rice

The recipe calls for ‘riso di Piemonte‘ or rice from Piemonte, a region of Italy that indeed is a major producer of rice. I’m not clear on whether this means any rice grown there or perhaps the region’s prized riso di Baraggia Biellese e Vercellese DOP.

In any event, Piemonte also grows more common rice varietals for risotto, including Carnaroli, considered by many the risotto rice par excellence. And indeed it is the rice the Accademia della Cucina Italiana recommends in the ‘official’ recipe for risotto alla milanese. Personally I find it far superior to Arborio, which produces too much starch in my opinion. The only problem is that Carnaroli can be harder to find. I often have to resort to online shopping to source Carnaroli; it’s available via Amazon as well as, for North American readers, online stores like Gustiamo and Alma Gourmet. But if Arborio is all you can find, it will work of course.

Another lovely varietal for risotto—and my personal favorite—is Vialone Nano from the Veneto. This article says is de rigueur in Mantova for making risotto alla milanese. Finally, if push comes to shove and you can’t find any of these varietals, then look for a medium or short grain rice rather than long grain varietal.

Finding bone marrow

The trend for bone marrow in recently years means you can find them at better butchers and upscale supermarkets. They also sell it at my local Asian supermarket. Do make sure they’re selling you actual marrow (i.e., leg) bones and not, say, knuckle, which has happened to me more than once. Knuckle only has a tiny bit of marrow. Another way to go about it is to buy a piece or two of beef shank cut across the bone; the bone will contain a goodly amount of marrow, and you can use the bone and shank meat for broth or stew.

If you can’t source the bone marrow, then just double the amount of butter. The marrow does add a lovely depth of beefy flavor as well as richness, but the butter, of course, will at least provide the richness.

Broth

Giuseppina tells you to use a hot broth made with good ‘meat’ (brodo bollente fatto con buona carne). The word carne is the generic word for meat, but if you use it without futher context, it usually means beef, though for broth it could also mean one you make with a mix of beef, chicken and perhaps some veal, along with bones.

And you really should make your own broth for this dish if you can. It makes a world of difference. Risotto alla milanese in particular doesn’t have other strong flavors going on, except perhaps for the saffron, so the end result really relies heavily on the quality of the broth.

Choosing the wine

As mentioned, Giuseppina calls for a vino bianco natural e dolce—a sweet and natural white wine. There are a few, very few, sweet Italian whites, most famously Moscato d’Asti, but it, like most sweet Italian whites, are generally fizzy wines. Personally I’d go with semi-sweet or amabile white like an Orvieto Classico Amabile DOC if you can find it. Otherwise you could go for a semisweet German wine like a Riesling or a Gerwürtztraminer which was my choice. It worked quite well.

Comparing Verdi’s recipe with the ‘official’ recipe for risotto alla milanese

Verdi’s recipe follows the classic recipe in its basic method and most of its ingredients. That said, it has a good number of ideosyncraicies as well. Most have to do with the order in which you add the ingredients, but also how well you toast and simmer the rice and, most suprising to me at least, its use of sweet wine.

Here is a point by point comparison of Verdi’s recipe with the “official” recipe as registered with the Accademia della Cucina Italiana:

• You sauté the rice until it is “toasted and has taken on a lovely golden color”. Normally one sautés the rice only until it turns translucent.
• The recipe calls for ‘vino bianco, naturale e dolce‘, white wine, natural and sweet. Normally you use a dry white for risotto, if any. The “official” recipe for risotto alla milanese doesn’t call for wine. I’m not entirely sure how literally I should take this instruction, but I went ahead and used a Gewürztrammer. It was slightly sweet but not at all cloying. As I said above, to my surprise I though it worked well.
• You add the wine midway through cooking, rather than rice after the rice and before you start to add the broth.
• You add the cheese midway through cooking. You normally stir it in vigorously right before serving, to develop its creaminess.
• Speaking of which, the recipe refers to 15 minutes being halfway through cooking—by implication, this means cooking the rice for 30 minutes. This is longer than most risotto recipes, which usually call for 15-20 minutes of simmering. Here again, I wasn’t sure. Did 19th century rice take longer to cook, or did they enjoy softer rice in those days? In the event, it worked fine. The rice was a bit softer than usual but not at all mushy.
• And finally Verdi has you add the saffron just before serving, which makes the risotto a very saffron forward. Though it didn’t color the rice as much as you get when you add it earlier. The “official recipe” calls for adding it midway through simmering, unless you are using ground saffron.

Comparing Verdi’s and Artusi’s recipes

A lot of classic Italian recipes have evolved over time. However eccentric it seems today, perhaps Verdi’s recipe was typical for his time? I tend to think not.

Artusi’s La scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiar bene, perhaps the best known Italian cookbook of that era, includes a roughly contemporary recipe for risotto alla milanese (No. 79, his second of two, actually) that is very much like today’s standard recipe. He tells you to add white wine (not sweet, though he doesn’t specify) right after the rice and before the broth. And he calls for the usual mantecatura with butter and cheese right before serving. His recipe also includes saffron dissolved in broth, but he neglects to mention when to add it.

Verdi’s Use of Measurements

One interesting factoid I discovered when I found this recipe: It uses measurements in once or ounces. Yes, that funny unit of measurement—still used in the US but almost nowhere else—was apparently used in much of Italy before unification, even if it became increasingly used in the course of the 19th century and was officially adopted by the newborn Kingdom of Italy in 1861. Surprisingly, it was only in the late 20th century (1982) that the metric system became obligatory. Hence, contrary to my usual practice, I’ve provided Imperial measurements before the metric ones in this recipe.

But here’s the catch: According to this Italian Wikipedia article, the actual weight of an oncia varied by region. In Tuscany, one oncia was equivalent to 28.3 grams, which is very close to its modern equivalent of 28.35 grams. But in Forli, north of the Appenines it was 24 grams. And since Verdi was from Le Roncole. also north of the Appenines, it’s possible his oncia was also 24 grams. But for simplicity’s sake, I’ve stuck to the modern ounce and called it a day. After all, the ratios remain constant anyway.

The original text of Verdi’s recipe for risotto alla milanese

For those of you who read Italian, here’s the text of Giuseppina’s recipe, which I found here. Since she wrote the recipe for a Frenchman, I imagine the original recipe was probably in French. But this is as close as I’ve been able to get.

Mettete in una casseruola due once di burro fresco; due once di midollo di bue, o vitello, con un poco di cipolla tagliata. Quando questa abbia preso il rosso mettete nella casseruola sedici once di riso di Piemonte: fate passare a fuoco ardente mischiando spesso con un cucchiaio di legno finché il riso sia abbrustolito ed abbia preso un bel color d’oro. Prendete del brodo bollente, fatto con buona carne e mettetene due o tre mescoli nel riso. Quando il fuoco l’avrà a poco a poco asciugato, rimettete poco brodo e sempre fino a perfetta cottura del riso. Avvertite però, che a metà della cottura del riso (ciò sarà dopo un quarto d’ora che il riso sarà nella casseruola) bisognerà mettervi un mezzo bicchiere di vino bianco, naturale e dolce: mettete anche, una dopo l’altra, tre buone manate di formaggio parmigiano grattato rapè. Quando il riso sia quasi completamente cotto, prendete una presa di zafferano che farete sciogliere in un cucchiaio di brodo, gettatelo nel risotto, mischiatelo, e ritiratelo dal fuoco, versatelo nella zuppiera. Avendo dei tartufi, tagliateli ben fini e spargeteli sul risotto a guisa di formaggio. Altrimenti mettetevi formaggio solo. Coprite e servite subito

Making risotto alla milanese ahead and leftovers

You can and should make the beef broth ahead. But like all risottos, you really should make risotto alla milanese when you want to eat it. That said, if you really must, you can use a little restaurant trick and cook the risotto halfway through, say just before you are supposed to add the cheese. Remove it from the heat and then cool it quickly by spreading the semi-cooked rice out on a greased baking sheet. Then when you’re ready to eat, put the rice back into the pot with a good ladleful of hot broth, bring it to a simmer, then proceed from there.

You can fry leftover risotto alla milanese in butter like a pancake to make a lovely dish in its own right called risotto al salto. For me presonally, it’s at least as good as the original dish. One of these days I’ll get around to posting the recipe, but there’s not much more to it than that. In the meanwhile, if you want a deep dive into the intricacies, you can check out this article from Serious Eats.

For more on Dining with Verdi

There’s a whole book entitled Dining with Verdi (Mondatori) that looks in depth at Verdi’s love affair with good food. Sadly it’s out of print, and I haven’t been able to find it online, but it’s ably reviewed in this lovely article from Lost Past Remembered, one of my favorite blogs.

A final note

A word to the wise: There exists a completely different dish called risotto alla Giuseppe Verdi. It’s a rather elaborate risotto made with prosciutto, tomatoes, mushrooms and asparagus (or in some recipes artichokes) and finished with butter, parmgiano-reggiano and cream.

Risotto alla Verdi isn’t Verdi’s recipe. In fact, as far as I can determine, he never tasted it. Although perhaps inspired by Verdi’s recipe, the dish was actually invented by famed Belle Epoque French chef Henri-Paul Pellaprat in his honor, likely after Verdi’s death. But that’s a recipe for another post.

Print

Giuseppe Verdi’s Risotto alla milanese

Course Primo

Cuisine lombardia

Keyword simmered

Total Time 45 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Calories 432.7kcal

Ingredients

• 50 g butter
• 50 g bone marrow minced
• 1/2 medium onion finely chopped
• 450 g rice for risotto preferably Carnaroli
• 2 liters beef broth preferably homemade
• sweet white wine
• 100 g freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
• A small pinch of saffron
• A truffle optional

Metric – US

Nutrition

Calories: 432.7kcal | Carbohydrates: 60.9g | Protein: 15g | Fat: 13.5g | Saturated Fat: 7.5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3.4g | Cholesterol: 29.3mg | Sodium: 1579.6mg | Potassium: 270.3mg | Fiber: 2.3g | Vitamin A: 342.2IU | Calcium: 224mg | Iron: 4mg

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