This is not a purist’s risotto, but something that can be made in a typical suburban kitchen, if you have arborio rice in the store cupboard, so much the better, but pudding rice works almost as well. Risotto is simply a way of cooking rice, a wide range of things can be added or left out, the combination of bacon and mushrooms is only one of many possibilities ranging from peas to squid ink. If colour is important to you, avoid using ingredients whose colour will leach into the rice, like mushrooms.
Ingredients (serves 6 adults, 4 teenagers)
1 lb (500 gm) arborio rice
1 Small onion
4 tablespoons of olive oil or 2 oz. Butter
2 rashers of bacon (smoked/unsmoked according to taste)
1 lb (500 gm) mushrooms
1 glass white wine optional
1.5 to 2 pints (750 – 1,000 litres) of water or clear stock.
Equipment
Deep 15 inch solid frying pan.
Method
Slice the bacon rashers into thin strips, finely chop the onion and coarsely chop the mushrooms.
Gently fry the bacon in the olive oil for a couple of minutes, then add the onion and keep the heat low until the onion turns transparent. Next add the mushrooms, and cook until they have become soft and reduced in volume as mushrooms do.
Add the rice to the pan and use a wooden spoon to stir it in to the fat.
If you have a glass of white wine to spare, this is the time to add it to the pan, Finally, come the process which creates the risotto. Increase the heat and add the water/stock a wine glassful at a time, keeping the contents of the pan moving to prevent sticking. When the water from one glass has almost been absorbed by the rice, add the next one. Repeat this process, it typically takes 30 to 40 minutes, until the rice ceases to take any more water, cook for a few minutes until any surplus has been boiled off.
Comment
Ham can be used in place of bacon.
Page Created: 16th March 2001