How To Prepare A Delicious Homemade Risotto To Accompany Your Meals

How to prepare a good homemade risotto? In fact, you don’t need fancy recipes, you just need to use the ingredients you have in your fridge.

This quintessentially Italian recipe is one of the dishes that seems a lot more complex than it actually is. In fact, you don’t need to have great cooking skills to make a great homemade risotto. 

A good homemade risotto is simply a matter of patience and dedication. Therefore, today in this article we offer you to follow our tips for preparing a delicious homemade risotto. The more you make this recipe, the more you will master how to prepare this delicious dish and how to delight your guests.

To prepare a good homemade risotto, you don’t need complicated recipes. Use whatever ingredients you have and with a little imagination, creativity and practice you will get really good results.

As for the ingredients, choose the vegetables you like the most, vegetable or animal proteins and of course rice.

The basic technique for preparing a homemade risotto

The basic technique for making homemade risotto is very simple. We will summarize this recipe for you in a few lines. Note the following steps:

1. First, briefly sauté the rice with a little shallot and finely chopped leeks in extra virgin olive oil.
2. When the rice begins to turn transparent, add white wine and let it evaporate. The volume of white wine is proportional to the quantity of risotto prepared. For 300 grams of rice, you should use ½ cup of white wine.
3. Once the white wine has evaporated , start adding the broth little by little over the rice. There is no exact amount of broth to make a good risotto. It will all depend on the amount of liquid required by the type of rice you are using.
4. Therefore, you will need to add the broth gradually, as the rice swells, until it is cooked “al dente”.
5. When the rice is almost cooked (a few seconds before being “al dente”), it’s time to finish preparing the risotto. This means that you will need to mix the butter and Parmesan together only at the end of the recipe, just before serving.

Tips for making the perfect homemade risotto

Choose a good rice

While you can use any type of rice to make a risotto, it is best to choose a type of rice called Carnaroli.

This variety of rice supports prolonged cooking, which allows all the flavors of this recipe to be absorbed optimally.

The “secrets” of broth

You should never add the broth all at once. Because if you add all the broth at the same time, you will not obtain the same cooking of the rice.

In addition, the broth should always be hot when you add it to the rice. If you pour in cold broth, you will also not get proper cooking, and this will affect the final texture of the risotto.

Should we mix the risotto?

If we want to get a good dry rice with garlic or onion, we should not mix the rice.

The recipe for a good creamy and sweet homemade risotto takes a lot of care and practice to make this dish perfectly successful. Mainly when you incorporate the butter and cheese into your risotto at the end of the preparation.

There are, so to speak, two “schools” that offer to prepare risotto in a different way. Some people prefer to add the broth, little by little, in very small doses, and then to mix it well. Others, on the other hand, will rather choose to incorporate more broth and less often but also to mix the risotto more occasionally.

Homemade shrimp and asparagus risotto recipe

 Ingredients (for 2 people)

• 1 cup of asparagus (200 g)
• Broth (as needed)
• 1 bar of butter (150 g)
• 2 cups of Carnaroli rice (300 g)
• ½ cup of white wine (100 ml)
• 1 finely chopped onion (40 g)
• 6 whole shrimps (with their heads)
• Salt and pepper to flavor (to taste)
• ¼ cup finely chopped shallot (50 g)
• 1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese (150 g)
• 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil (20 ml)

Preparation

• To prepare the broth, you will use the heads of the prawns previously washed and the vegetables you like. You can also add a bay leaf, a little rosemary and a crushed garlic clove.
• First, brown the onion, shallot and rice with olive oil.
• Then add the white wine and let it evaporate completely.
• When the white wine has completely evaporated, start adding the broth, little by little. Each time you add broth, you will need to mix the mixture well and taste the rice to verify that it is cooked.
• While waiting for the rice to cook, brown the prawns, cleaned beforehand, in a pan with olive oil. At the end, add a little salt and pepper on the golden shrimp.
• Once the rice is perfectly al dente , add the asparagus previously grilled and also cooked al dente.
• Finally, you can immediately finish your risotto. For this, you will need to incorporate butter and Parmesan to give a touch of creaminess.
• When the risotto is creamy, you can serve it by decorating it with the grilled shrimp.

For proper cooking, it is essential to use a medium heat. You will also need to constantly ensure that the rice is cooked and that the rice is perfectly mixed while incorporating the broth.