Thanks for checking out FixMyRecipe.com. Chef Billy Parisi here. Our next recipe was emailed to us by Dane Peterson of Harrisburg, Virginia. He sent us a recipe for Risotto. Per se, there’s nothing really wrong with this recipe, but he asked if we could further enhance the flavors. Dane, let me tell you something, Italians eat this stuff for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They eat it as whole meals. We’re going to add some awesome flavors and make it actually wonderful caramelized onion and basil risotto.
Alright Dane, first things first. We’re going to add our whole butter and get these onions caramelizing. Alright Dane our onions are about halfway done. We’re going to further caramelize them with a little bit of sugar. Now that our onions are nice and caramelized, we’re going to add in our Arborio rice. We’re just going to toast that before we deglaze. And in good Italian fashion, you got to use a wooden spoon when it comes to cooking risotto.
Alright Dane, now is the fun part. Let’s add some white wine and deglaze. It’s also going to enhance the flavor of our risotto. Here’s the tricky part. You want to add our nice chicken stock that we made a few episodes ago on Fix My Recipe. You can see it in our video library. Let’s simply add our chicken stock in little by little and keep stirring until it’s al dente.
When I made this one time in a restaurant, and with an Italian chef, and I’m stirring it and stirring it and I stopped then I started stirring the other way, he came over and smacked my hand with a spatula. “You got to stir it the same way every time. It’s going to taste better that way”. So Dane, here’s my word of advice, you better stir it the same way or I’m going to come and smack your hand while you’re on your kitchen.
As you can see Dane, our Arborio rice has sucked up all the chicken stock it can take. All we got to do now is add a little cream and further enhance those flavors.
Risotto is not risotto without a parmesan cheese. It’s going to thicken it up and just add that extra flavor that we’re looking for. Now it’s time for salt and pepper. Remember, I always say, season once, taste twice. You can’t go wrong. And to kick it up a notch, we’re going to add fresh chiffonade basil right to our risotto. And remember fresh herbs go in at the end.
Alright Dane our risotto is done. It looks wonderful and the smells in this kitchen are just son fabulous. I cannot wait to try some of this. Remember you can eat this as a meal, and I’m glad you did, because now I got dinner tonight. I can’t wait to get in to this.
And remember Dane, deglaze with white wine. Caramelize those onions a little further than you normally would. Throw in some fresh herbs on top to make a meal of this. Add in some steaks, some chicken, even some seafood if you’d like. It’s going to go perfect no matter what you do.
I’m going to get a little taste to this and let you know how wonderful this really is. Mmm, I can’t wait to eat this whole thing, and I tell you what. I can really do it.
Come back tomorrow to FixMyRecipe.com. See all of our videos in our library and see if there’s a recipe on there that catches your eye.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services