Risotto Should Not Be a Side Dish
This is the meal
I made beef stock the day before yesterday: big bones plus a very meaty slice of shank went into a pressure cooker with celery, carrots, parsley, and leeks for about an hour. Then I took the meat off the bones — and even got some marrow from them, too. The stock, after 24 hours in the fridge, was almost thick enough to stand a spoon up in it.
I decided to make a nearly proper risotto Milanese. (Maybe not even close to nearly proper; certainly, the purists among you will scoff.) It’s rare that all the ingredients present themselves: stock, rice, saffron, marrow. And this is top-notch stock.
The rice, not Arborio or even Italian, is from Koda Farms, which produces fantastic short-grain rice in California (and is run by third-generation rice farmers who happen to be terrific people). The saffron — I always have some and, at the risk of repeating myself, so should you: saffron.com. And there was marrow; as I said, this was not a common circumstance.
I don’t make anything the same way twice unless I’m testing recipes, and this wouldn’t be an exception. As I cooked, I thought of my history with risotto.
