The Rice Stuff

Arborio rice is a short grain rice from the municipality of Arborio. It is the rice of choice for making a risotto because of how it creates the silky stew-like dish with nothing but wine, broth, and time. How does it do this? Why can't we use other rice to make risotto? And who and what started the idea of slow-simmering rice to make a delicious, surprisingly accessible stew-like dish? We get into this below.

Why Arborio rice?

Why this specific rice? The quick answer is, "Because it works well". The longer answer is that risotto can be made with other rice grains besides arborio, but the other varieties are harder to come by. In fact, Arborio isn't even the best rice for risotto: that honour belongs to Carnaroli rice, which has a larger size of grain, and a higher starch content. It also retains its shape during cooking far better. You can also use Vialone Nano rice, a rice best for lighter risotto dishes using fish or vegetables (Michael Caines at Home, pg 114). However, Arborio makes a fine risotto, and is available in most larger supermarkets or even smaller corner markets. If your city or town has a "Little Italy", you can probably find Arborio there, as well as some of these other two rice varieties. If you happen to, you know, actually live in Italy, Arborio comes from the municipality of the same name, Carnaroli comes from Vercelli (Both of these cities are in the Piedmont region), and Vialone Nano comes from Verona, so you can always take a jaunt down there to pick some up.

Why does risotto specialty rice work the way it does? That is thanks to the chemical compounds known as amylose and amylopectin: the two components of starch. Risotto rice has a far higher starch content than other forms of rice, and also retains its shape way better than, say, a jasmine or basmati rice would after lengthy cooking times. This is good - the texture of the rice in a risotto is as important as it's flavour. It also allows you to cook the rice for longer with more stock and wine, creating an even bigger flavour in the final dish. As well, the high starch content in the rice allows for small Maillard reactions to occur between the starch and the amino acids in the stock or protein you are using. This creates sucre, which deglazes into fond, which turns up the flavour of your dish even more.

History of Risotto

Rice was always grown in south Italy, but eventually made it's way north. This was a turning point for Italian rice, as the Marshes of the Po Valley in Piedmont are incredible for growing and cultivating rice. As for the history of the dish itself, you may not be surprised to learn that this story is legend, not necessarily fact; According to the legend, a young glassblower's apprentice of the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano from Flanders, who used to use saffron as a pigment, added it to a rice dish at a wedding feast: this turned the rice a golden a colour. The first written recipe is from 1809, using marrow, sausage, butter, onions, and saffron. There's another recipe from 1854 by an assistant chief cook to kings. However, these do not clarify or cement the dish's origins. So it goes: we love a mystery!

Finally, what's Arborio (the municipality) like? Well, like so many places in Europe that turn out globally brilliant invention and art, Arborio is a small town of about 1000 people. If you drive in the country in Prairie Canada, you are likely to find a small hamlet that dwarfs Arborio in size. Of course, great things often come in small packages, so it's no surprise that Arborio follows suit.

Without further ado, let's honour Arborio's rice by making a great risotto.

How to Make it

Stock and Asparagus

Prepare your ingredients, then put your vegetable stock in a small pot and bring it to a boil. Once it's boiling, reduce it to a simmer.

While that's coming to temperature, heat some oil over medium heat in a large pan, and add your chopped asparagus.

Season this with salt and pepper. Sautee until softened, and very green.

Take these out of the pan and set them aside for later.

Soffrito

Add the rest of your oil, let it get hot, then add your onion and celery.

Cook this until the onions are translucent, then add your garlic, thyme, lemon zest, and chilli flakes. Let this cook until it smells great.

Simmer the Rice

Add the Arborio rice and cook it in the sofrito and fat until the rice turns sort of clear, then add your wine and lemon juice.

Gently stir the rice as it cooks, exposing as much of the rice as possible to the simmering liquid.

Once all the wine and lemon juice is gone, start adding in your broth one ladle at a time as opposed to all at once. Before adding the next ladle, let all the broth from the previous ladle-full evaporate and/or cook into the rice. This will prevent your rice from becoming mushy.

Enjoy some wine and conversation while you gently stir - this part of the recipe is pretty laid back.

Keep adding ladles of broth and stirring until the rice is cooked through. If you run out of broth before the rice is done, you can boil water and use that - the cheese and salt will offset any blandness that comes from cooking the rice with water near the end. Also, you will have already cooked the rice in wine, stock, and your spices from earlier - it will be hard to negate all that flavour.

Once the rice is cooked through (it will have a very small amount of bite to it), turn off the heat: the rest of the dish is done with residual heat, so no need for a burner. Add butter, parmesan cheese, the cooked asparagus, and salt pepper (and more lemon juice if you wish.

Stir this into the rice until everything is incorporated. Adjust seasoning to your preference, and enjoy - this is one of our favourites.