Risotto. Italian comfort food. Well, northern Italian comfort food. Italy grows more rice than any other European country. The Po Valley is Rice Central. Rice has probably been growing in Italy since the middle ages - which would mean that it is older than Italy - by about 500 years. There are lots of dishes served around the world that are called risotto. Most of them are just rice dishes. If it isn't made with arborio, carnaroli or vialone nano rice varieties and isn't made using home-made stock and isn't cooked to order (which a lot of restaurants won't do because the constant stirring is so labour-intensive) then it isn't risotto. My favourite basic risottos in no particular order are fennel, squid ink, crab, verde (with various green leaves & herbs), radicchio, beetroot and saffron. Any of these can be adorned with other goodies - seared scallops on the squid ink, for example, or quail or goat's cheese on the beetroot. I bought a huge bunch of small beetroot at the markets yesterday and roasted them today. I had a litre of very rich chicken stock in the freezer. I've sprinkled a few red mustard cress leaves on top.
BEETROOT RISOTTO
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