Christmas risotto, Italian style

Christmas risotto recipe

Preparation and cooking

• - Prepare mushrooms.
  Soak dried mushrooms in warm water for at least 2 hours.
  Squeeze mushrooms from their soaking water and cut them into little pieces.
  Strain soaking water, add salt and dilute if necessary. It will serve as a broth to cook risotto. You'll need about a liter or so (2.1 pints - 4 1/4 cups).
• - Prepare other ingredients.
  Halve chestnuts.
  Peel sausage and cut into little pieces.
  Chop onion finely.
• - Prepare risotto.
  Bring soaking water to a boil.
  Meanwhile fry slightly onion and bay leaf in olive oil in a large non-stick saucepan, on very low heat.
  Add mushrooms and sausage and let all flavor.
  Add rice too, stir and cook until milky.
  Pour in wine, stir and let it evaporate.
  Begin adding broth, ladle by ladle, stirring now and then.
  Add broth only when cooking liquid is well reduced.
  Continue until rice is tender.
  Five minutes before turning off the stove, add chestnuts too.
  Once turned off the stove, sprinkle with aroamtic herbs and stir.

Just before serving

• - Serve after a couple of minutes in individual plates.

Note

Tips

• - Serve risotto accompanied by a little bowl full og grated Parmesan.
• - The success of this dish depends on the choice of ingredients.
  First of all use a rice that can't overcook.
  Then rely on your butcher for sausage.
  Choose dried porcini for a better taste.
• - If you are garlic lover, add it to onion and bay leaf. Remove it from the saucepan before adding rice.
  I never use garlic in my recipe because I love to taste the real flavor of all ingredients and I think garlic covers them.
• - This dish is very good even if you add no sausage. In this case this Christmas risotto is a vegetarian dish.
• - The picture shows my Christmas risotto served on a platter and decorated with a branch of grapes made ​​with raw carrots. If you prefer, you can steam or boil small carrots and use them for decoration.
• - If you have any Christmas risotto left, you can warm it up the next day. It is delicious! I guarantee it because I often do it. However, the best way to warm it up is this. Line a silicone mold with slices of raw ham. Transfer your risotto into the mold and level its surface. Bake about 10 minutes in the oven at 350°F.
  You could also cook it the day before al dente stage and then bring it to the table with this method of cooking the day after. Great tip for those who do not have much time to make all the menu dishes at the same time.

Menu planning

• - Christmas risotto serves 4 if it is one-plate meal, in fact you can make it all winter not only on Holiday Season On the contrary, if it is prepared for your Christmas dinner, it serves up to 10 people. A couple of tablespoons are enough for every guest, seen the food on the table on that occasion.
• - Buffet idea. Prepare your risotto in advance. Distribuite it into muffin molds in silicone and bake for 10 minutes at 350°F just before serving. Turn them upside down on serving platter. You'll astonish your guests, surely! Think of them for your New Year's Eve meal, buffet-style.
• - My Christmas risotto is ideal for a Holiday menu, Italian style.
  Starter. Begin with an assorted antipasto platter made with vegetables in oil, cold cuts, pieces of savory tarts and paté. Have a look at our directory on Italian antipasto ideas. You find all links in the next paragraph.
  First course. My Christmas risotto.
  Second course. Choose among duck recipes (orange duck or pomegranade duck), stuffed capon recipe ideas such as capon filled with Cointreau-flavored chestnuts or turkey. Orange turkey breast or pomegranade turkey breast are more delicate recipes compared with the other ones, just mentioned.
  Dessert. Our directory dedicated to cakes and desserts is full of traditional recipes for Christmas that have made Italy famous all over the world. First of all panettone.

Useful links for this recipe

• - You could be interested in mushrooms. They are a very important ingredient in autumn and winter and to know how to choose, clean and combine with other foods for tasty recipes can help you a lot.
• - Here are the links to consult to plan your Christmas menu, Italian-style.
  For example our directory dedicated to Italian antipasto ideas.
  Among duck recipes you'll find the versions with oranges or pomegranades. In the area dedicated to poultry there are a lot of ideas, capon included.
  Finally here is cakes and desserts! Follow the link. It's too interesting!

Healthy eating

• - It is obvious that what follows is not dedicated to this risotto chosen for Christmas Day menu or some other special occasion. It is a rare event.
  Instead, my reflection is linked to the choice to prepare it for family menu, for Sunday dinner for example. Given the richness of its ingredients, we are faced with a full plate. Its calories speak for themselves. Complete your meal with raw vegetables to munch on or a seasonal green salad and fresh fruit. In any case, keep in mind that the percentages found next to calories, fat and sugar help you on how to choose other food for the day.
• - Fiber per serving: 4.6 grams /daily intake 30 grams per head).

Loretta

What's the right wine ?

My husband and I like pairing Corvo Rosso (red wine from Sicily) to my Christmas risotto or a new wine.