By Teddy Duffy
Photo by author
A couple of weeks ago, I found myself extremely hungry in my Introduction to Italian Food Traditions class. Luckily, I found out we were making risotto that day. Having never tried it besides my mother’s, I was excited. I enjoyed the risotto so much that I decided to make it myself.
My first step was to turn on some Andrea Bocelli because he has the voice of an angel and he is one of the few artists I know from Italy. Once the music was on, I began. Instead of following the dish we had made in class, I decided to put my own spin on it. I added in sausage instead of mushrooms and decided to double the recipe to feed the guests I had over. I don’t recommend cooking a dish on your own for the first time with guests over because it adds a lot of pressure to the process. Thankfully, I loved it and delved into cooking. Keeping my eye on three different pans at once was difficult, so much so that I grabbed a small dish towel to use as a sweat towel. I had sausage with shallots, garlic, olive oil, and wine sauteeing in one pan with rice in another, and the broth in a large pot. While all of the ingredients were cooking, I was shredding some parmigiano reggiano and cutting up parsley. Apparently, I was pouring so much sweat and shaking the pans so hard to mix them that one of my guests asked if I was okay, to which I replied, “I’m in Florence, how can I not be okay?”. The loud opera music just intensified the scene. Finally, as everything came together, I began to combine the ingredients. I threw the sausage into the risotto and poured the bowl of parmesan in as well. Based off of my guests reviews and my own taste buds, it was a success. Everyone loved it so much that my guests offered to pay for all the ingredients this week if I cooked it for them again.
All in all, it was lots of fun to learn about a traditional dish while still putting my own spin on it. I guess I have no on else to thank but Andrea Bocelli!
Teddy’s Risotto
Ingredients:
360 gr ( 12 oz ) ( 2 cups ) Arborio rice
3-6 Italian sausages (based on # of people)
4 shallots, halved and thinly sliced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
60 gr ( 2 oz ) grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
120 ml ( ½ cup ) dry white wine
1 + ½ liter water for the vegetable broth
1 onion, 1 carrot, 1 potato, 1 celery and 1 zucchina for the vegetable broth
15 gr ( ½ oz ) parsley, finely chopped
60 gr ( 2 oz ) extra virgin olive oil salt to taste
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