Easy Garlic Risotto

Garlic is not often used in flavoring risotto; onion is usually used as a base flavor. In this recipe, however, the flavor of garlic is pronounced, and I love it. It is simple – and delicious, especially if you add some shrimp (or scallops or clams) in the last 5 minutes of cooking. You can also add a vegetable, such as broccoli or peas. Once you have mastered the basic recipe the variations are endless! And I also answer all your questions on the best way to choose, use and store fresh garlic! Buon Gusto!

Recipe – https://lidiasitaly.com/recipes/garlic-risotto/

Mushroom Risotto – https://youtu.be/04jW_H8gsoU

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[Music] I promised you garlic and onions and lots of it and here you have it Roto simple Roto lots of garlic scallions lots of onions and it’s going to be delicious let’s get the onion going uh with some olive oil what you need for a roto you need a nice thick pan where the heat is spread evenly so all of the rice Cooks at the same temperature in a wi pan so the addition of stock evaporates because part of making the result is adding the stock and have the stock evaporate the starches come out and then you add some more stock and so on and so forth so a little bit of salt in the onion right here and of course the absolute essential to a good result is the rice itself so this is arboria rice it’s sort of a short plumpy rice what’s unique about it is is the ratio of the starches that are in the kernel itself cuz I’m going to coax that starch out and I’m going to make the Roto creamy with that so I have the onions going I want to toast it right with the onions and with the oil and I want to kind of make a little capsule out of this rice because then the ideal result is where the rice is perfectly cooked and is suspended in this creamy mixture you don’t want the rice opening up and sometimes not being cooked in the center you want the rice thoroughly cooked but still be a whole Kel that is suspended in this creamy mixture that we are going to create so the next step actually is adding wine since I’m going to use a lot of garlic and I don’t want pieces of garlic in there I’m going to make a puree with the garlic [Music] so this is toasting will I see any difference in color in the rice being toasted no you sort of hear this clickety clack that means that it is being toasted adding wine at this point the rice is now very thirsty it’s going to take in the wine and it’s going to balance the inside flavor the acidity is going to go in [Music] every kitchen should have some garlic and some onion and along with some olive oil they’re the basis the beginning of just about any Italian Dish garlic adds more punch more volatile flavors if you will uh onion is more sweet more mellow uh more velvety what happens next is this back and forth procedure of adding hot stock to the Roto to co the starches out the liquid whether it’s chicken stock vegetable stock fish stock or just plain water you can make a good result with just plain water it should be at the same temperature because cooking is a chemical reaction and heat is a catalyst so you don’t want to stop this reaction by adding cold stock and how much do you add just enough to cover this and when you’re putting this rice aside and you can see the base then you need a little bit more of stock NOW one would say Lydia why do you need this back and forth can I put as much stock as I need in here and get doing something else not really the technique wouldn’t work what would happen is that the rice would open up because it will react to all of the liquid that you have it in so we don’t want to do that we just want it slowly added lower a little bit the Heat and you continue back and forth keep in mind that the result will take about 17 minutes to cook from beginning to end I love garlic but it’s important to know how to buy it how to store it how to cut it and how to use it here we have a beautiful firm head of garlic and that’s what you want nice tight and firm here on the other hand is a head of garlic that has sort of reached its past what is happening here is actually that each clove is forming a chute you can still use it but that’s not the best the best is this so when you approach a garlic clove just clean the whole clove put a nice knife on top and whack it just like that begin to clean each clove yes your hands smell put a little lemon juice after that and you’ll be fine you put the clove like that you put it in the refrigerator it’ll be good for a whole week what is the best way to use garlic you know the more you cut garlic or crush or whatever the more flavor it yields I like the whole cloves when I do kind of chunky things Meats uh uh or or vegetables I take the clove and I crush it again so I use this I see it I cook it I let the flavors come out and then I can remove it so the slic garlic I use that when I make grazed vegetables cutting it gives me a lot of flavor and I use the sliced garlic the one thing to keep in mind is that when you cook garlic completely whether you bake it or sauté it in a pan that’s when the flavor becomes mild and delicious so here you have it on garlic and now it’s up to you scallions with this I promised you a lot of onions and I’m going to keep my promise scallions are easy to clean just wash them take the little stems off and there’s anything [Music] else so I’ll take the white part and I’ll put it in that takes a little longer to cook and then I’ll add the green leaves which are tenders and just sort of throw them in at the very end maybe I’ll put just a little bit a drizzle of salt because then I’ll put cheese lots of cheese whipped in there so the result is coming along beautifully let’s throw in the scallions everything in just a little bit more of the stock let me taste it is something that you should taste regularly uh at least every 3 4 minutes so you get to know where it is I mean as Italians really like it alente depends what your family likes you can cook it a little more you can leave it very alente M and you know what we are there so let me take it off the heat I don’t want it to continue cooking and the next step is called manare isoto so you you have cubes of butter and you just kind of whip them in there and the movement here is really Manar really getting it in the aroma is delicious the creaminess is here the rice is just alente and of course the next one is the actual gred cheese the last step of moto and finishing the isot so I think that I am perfect with my result I think it’s easy to serve result you know with with the ladle and if you put it in in warm containers or soup bowls it’s the best way I’m going to put a little bit for myself because you know I want a taste Roto has got to be served immediately Roto cannot wait because it just continues to open up and grow so a little bit of formio a nice warm Chota cha means you know like a cute little pot that you just want to kind of hug like this one a cha full of Roto it’s a good [Music] thing it is delicious it’s so complex in flavor but you saw the Simplicity of it onions lots of garlic wine and then the scallions the cheese and the butter and your great result always made so this is the basic technique to this you can go in any direction as far as flavors