Risotto in it’s original form is simple. It’s just the rice, onion, broth and some seasoning. It’s generally eaten as a primo, the first course (not to be mixed up with a starter) like pasta. The way you often see risotto served in restaurants, as a side or even mail dish, is far from the original form. But original or not, it tastes wonderful!

Usually I do make my risotto’s the original way, mostly a variation on the traditional Milanese recipe, just using chicken stock and wine instead of beef stock. Very plain, very simple, very tasty.

We spent the day working on our balcony. Cleaning it  up and getting it ready to sit there and have a drink, or even dinner in the sun. After a day working in the sun,  I didn’t want to bother with two courses. With the ingredients I still had, I figured I could make a much jazzed up risotto as a main (and only) course. Not as plain and simple as a regular risotto, true blooded Italians would definitely frown upon my idea (or refuse to eat it), but I figured it’d still be tasty. It was. (And L, being half Italian, didn’t complain until after he finished his plate. His complaint was that he’d eaten too much – and obviously he blamed me for that!)

Risotto Milanese with a big twist (recipe for 4)

• 1 whole (2 half) chicken breast
• 1 zucchini
• saffron powder
• risotto rice
• 0.5 liter chicken stock (from a cube)
• white wine
• olive oil
• onion
• garlic
• pepper
• parmigiano

Cube the chicken and the zucchini into faily lage chunks. Chop a quarter of the onion and a clove of garlic. Place the chicken in a bowl, drizzle some olive oil on there and sprinkle a good amount of saffron powder over it. Mix so that all the chicken is visibly covered in saffron (it’s all very yellow).
Pour a little olive oil in a sautéing pan, add the garlic and onion and then the zucchini. When the zucchini is slightly cooked, but still has a lot of bite, remove from pan.
Add the saffron chicken to the pan, cook it until it’s slightly browning on the outside. It doesn’t matter if it’s fully cooked yet. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.
Add some more olive oil to the pan, chop another clove of garlic and the remaining 3 quarters of the onion and add to the pan. Add enough risotto rice for the amount of people you’re cooking for and cook the raw dry rice in the oil/garlic/onion mixture for a couple of minutes, until the outside of the grains of rice turns glassy. Add about a cup of wine to the pan. Stir until the rice has taken up all of the wine. Add some of the chicken stock, keep stirring until the liquid has disappeared into the rice. Repeat this process until you’ve used about half the stock. Add the chicken to the pan and keep stirring. Add some more stock, stir, when you’re down to the last quarter of the stock add the zucchini (you just want the vegetable to get warm again, it doesn’t need to really cook anymore. Start tasting the rice. If it’s not soft enough yet, add some more stock, or if you’re out of stock some more wine. Once the rice is nice and soft (but still with a little bite, al dente) add a generous amount of grated parmigiano. Stir the cheese through the risotto and serve immediately!
!! The risotto needs to be a little runny, if it’s too dry, add a little more stock or wine at the last minute and stir it through so you’ll have a nice, runny, creamy dish.