Romano Cheese Risotto with Pan-seared Veggies

Ah risotto. Fancy. Creamy. Buttery and cheesy.

It can either be delicious or taste like crunchy, hard, glue.

Let’s avoid the latter.

How to Not Suck at Making Risotto

• Please use the right type of rice. If you use just your regular rice, this project is doomed from the start. Good types include: Arborio, Carnaroli, and Vialone Nano.
• Do not wash your rice. You need starch to get that creaminess.
• Toast your rice. Cooking the rice in hot butter for about 2 minutes helps it to absorb liquid better.
• Use good quality wine and broth. Remember it is going to be concentrated, so if you can’t even take a sip of that wine, you don’t want it in your risotto.
• USE HOT BROTH! Ok no one told me this, and I was wondering why my risotto was so hard. By using cold broth, you are lowering the temperature of the risotto and making it more difficult to absorb. You and to keep the temperature constant, so simmer your broth in a pot next to your cooking risotto.
• A little at a time. Add about 1 ladle of liquid into the risotto at a time.
• Keep stirring. That helps to release the starch from the rice.
• Ignore most time estimations. It really depends on the freshness of your risotto, your wine, your broth, your stove, etc. Do what feels right. If it is hard, it still needs cooking.
• Risotto should be creamy, not dry, stick to your spoon, and al dente instead of mushy or hard.

Ingredients

• 20 stalks asparagus
• 1/4 onion or a few small shallots
• 2 carrots
• 1 bunch broccoli
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 6 tbsp butter
• 1 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 1/2 cup risotto rice (I used
• 4 cups broth
• 3/4 cups Romano Cheese

Directions

1. Cut up asparagus, carrots, broccoli, and peas.
2. Place veggies into a pan with some olive oil and sauté for 3 minutes. Allow sear for another 3 minutes.
3. Cut up onion and place into pan where you will cook risotto. Add 3 tbsp butter.
4. Cook onion until it is translucent and soft.
5. Add rice, toast for 2 minutes, coating it in the butter.
6. Put your broth to heat.
7. Begin adding wine, a little at a time. Stir until absorbed.
8. After wine is absorbed, begin adding hot broth a ladle at a time until all is absorbed. This will take a while. Your risotto should not be swimming in liquid at the end.
9. Once broth is absorbed, remove from head (to prevent overcooking) and add in 3 tbsp butter and the Romano cheese.
10. Stir butter and cheese vigorously into the risotto to make it creamy.
11. Once butter and cheese are totally mixed in, add seared vegetables.
12. Best eaten hot out of the pot!

For a nice example of how your risotto should look in various stages, see FlourishingFoodie’s great tutorial!