Risotto Formaggio di Capra

If ever I have a cookbook of my own, I’m going to name it “The Brand New Book That No One Really Can Afford to Buy Right Now, But That Will Teach You How to Make Many Scrumptious, Low-Cost Meals, Depending Upon What’s Available That Season, Including Lesser-cuts of Meat, an Occasional Seafood Item, and Definitely Wine”. My inspiration for this title is the work of one Cristoforo di Messisbugo, a Renaissance chef and cookbook author who I learned about in reading up on risotto. His cookbook, published around 1549, was entitled “The New Book Which Teaches How to Make All Kinds of Food, According to the Season, Whether Meat or Fish”. A succinct, and no doubt accurate, title. Signore Messisbugo was cited as being one of the first Italian chefs to mention risotto in a menu, in this case, a Risotto alla Siciliana, served in 1543, and finished with saffron, as Risotto Milanese is finished today. Risotto is a preparation of a particular type of rice, fino or superfino. These are longer grained rices which are able to absorb the cooking liquid used in the preparation without disintegrating or becoming mushy. Rice is an important dish in the north of Italy, particularly in the regions surrounding the Po Valley where the majority of Italian rice is grown. Though rice is often thought to have made its way to Italy either with the Saracens (a medieval European term that encompasses all Muslim peoples) or through Venice as a result of trade with the Far East, the Romans had learned of rice from the Greeks, and traded in it, though they didn’t grow it themselves. It is possible that the first people to grow rice in Italy were the Aragonese, who arrived in Campania – the region just south of Lazio where Rome is situated – in the 15th century. Rice has never gained as much popularity in the south of Italy – pasta is the starchy dish of choice there, and who doesn’t love pasta? But when superfino rice is prepared as risotto, it can be difficult to declare pasta better than rice. I think the southern Italians are just too warm year-round and therefore can’t stand the idea of stirring a pot of rice for twenty five minutes. But that is not the case where I live, and so winter brings with it much stirring of the pot.

Many of the things that other people find tedious in terms of kitchen work, I rather enjoy. There’s the kneading of dough. I like the feel of the dough in my hands. I like the fact that when it is finally silken and elastic, my hands have brought it to that point, and I instinctively recognize that it is there at that point (instinctively after many sessions of kneading, I have to add). I like to make fresh pasta whenever I have the chance in spite of the fact that there are perfectly good options for purchasing both fresh and dried pasta within just a few miles of my house. I don’t mind having to roast vegetables and allow them to cool before making a dish. Multi-step preparations are a welcome endeavor. Perhaps I am too task-oriented, but completing each step makes me feel pretty damned good about the accomplishment. And then there is the meditative allure of cooking intricate or time-consuming dishes. Risotto is a perfect example of a meditative dish. Yes, you do need to stand by the stove and stir constantly, but as you do, you get to watch the rice plump up as it absorbs the stock, there’s the rhythmic and hypnotic motion of the spoon moving through the rice in circles, the occasional clanking of the ladle against the pot that’s keeping the stock warm, and the glass of wine for sipping while you stir. Never without the glass of wine, people. Never. Which is why I’m a home cook and not a professional chef. What a disaster that would be.

There is a huge variety of ways in which risotto may be prepared – with seafood, with saffron (alla Milanese), with peas, with artichoke hearts, with asparagus, with mushrooms (that’s a good one – we’ll do that later this winter, ok?), simply with parmigiano and butter (Risotto Bianco), or you can improvise and take it whatever way you like once you’ve got the basic steps down. JR and I had leek risotto a couple of weeks ago, butternut squash risotto (no, I won’t stop with the butternut squash. Not yet. I have so much butternut squash stashed at my house.) is a great holiday side dish, lemony risotto is good with chicken or seafood, on and on it goes. And so, in working on the menu for the lamb shanks we had on Sunday night, I thought goat cheese risotto would be a fitting accompaniment. If you don’t like goat cheese, perhaps you should try some more to be sure. Not all of it comes in a shelf-stable-for-ten-years plastic tube, you know (though don’t discount locally made goat cheese in a plastic tube. That’s a whole different animal than the grocery-store goat-cheese-in-a-tube). If that fails, feel free to make the risotto with Parmigiano-Reggiano instead, and you’ll have mastered a staple of northern Italian cuisine, Risotto Bianco.

Dinner tonight: Broiled Sweet Italian Sausage with sauteed cabbage and cannellini beans. Estimated cost for two: $6.95. The sausage was on sale for $2.99 per pound. The amount we’re having tonight cost $2.28 – JR will have two links, I will have one. The cabbage was $1.10, we’ll use most of that, so let’s stick with $1.10 for our math. The beans are Whole Foods store brand, and cost 99-cents. The olive oil I’ll use will be around 60-cents, and I will add a couple cloves of garlic to the cabbage as it sautes, so we’ll call that 10-cents from a 50-cent head of garlic. We will shave some Parmigiano-Reggiano over our dishes, so at $29.99/pound for the Red Cow, that’s about $1.85 for the amount we’ll use tonight. You can always find a less expensive Parmigiano-Reggiano, but don’t use the green can o’cheese, whatever you do. You have standards, you know.