Risotto with Asparagus & Lemon Zest
I want to share this risotto recipe as a tribute to one of my favourite spring veggies: asparagus.
I always loved its delicate taste, as child, I used to forage asparagus with my dad. We would walk in the woods, close to our house, and pick these really long and thin stems. We would then just boil them and eat them with salt, a drizzle of olive oil and a few drops of lemon juice.
The lemon zest in this risotto is my attempt at re-creating that simple taste.
“In Italy risotto is always considered an easy thing to cook up in a hurry, but I have no idea where to start.”
If you’ve never made a risotto in your life it might be a bit daunting at first but — as for pasta — there are a few steps that you will encounter in all recipes. Learn these and you will master every risotto recipe:
1. Prepare your soffritto with onion or garlic
2. Toast the rice in your soffritto
3. Add some wine and simmer
4. Slowly cook in stock
5. Add butter & parmesan (off the hob “mantecatura”)
Creamy rhymes with Dreamy, but I am not going to fall in that trap.
Ingredients list
160g of risotto rice (it’s 80g per person)
Olive oil for soffritto (enough to cover the bottom of your pan)
1 bunch of asparagus
2 spring onions
1 small glass of white wine
1 litre vegetable stock (you don’t have to make it yourself!)
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tbsp of butter
2 tbsp of grated parmesan
Pepper
Cooking time & People
Roughly 40min
2 people
Step by step
Wash the asparagus and get rid of the hard part. Slice the stems thinly but leave the tips whole
Prepare your stock and put it in a jar next to the hobs
Put a couple of tbsp of olive oil in a pan and quickly sauté the asparagus with a bit of salt. Don’t cook them for more than 5 mins. Once they are slightly softer put them in a plate and set aside
Put olive oil in a pan and warm it up. Add your spring onions thinly sliced and sauté at low heat (you don’t want to burn them)
After a few minutes, increase the heat and add the rice. Toast it until the grains are translucent
Time to add the wine. Keep the heat quite high and simmer until the alcohol evaporates and you are left with just the rice
It’s now time to add the stock, 1 ladle at the time. Make sure you stir the risotto until the stock is absorbed and it’s time to add another ladle of stock. This is quite a time-consuming operation and you have to make sure you stay on top of it or your rice will burn
Halfway in, which should roughly be 10 minutes after you added your first ladle of stock, throw the asparagus back in the pan with the rice
Keep going with the stock, 1 ladle at the time. Make sure you taste the rice for saltiness and to understand when it’s ready. If you are using ready-made stock, you probably won’t need to more than a pinch of salt
The rice is ready when it’s creamy but still holds its shape. When you put it in your mouth, you should still be able to feel the grains (remember: it’s not a rice pudding)
Take it off the hob, add the lemon zest, the butter and the parmesan, cover your pan and let it set for 2 minutes. Take the lid off and shake the pan while holding it with both hands
Your risotto should be creamy and ready to serve
Tips & cheats
If you get distracted and forget to stir, your rice will stick to the bottom of the pan and burn. If that happens you can try and salvage it by putting the remaining rice in a separate pan and continue the process from where you left it
You can get creative and substitute the final tbsp of butter with any kind of creamy cheese you like. You can use mascarpone, stracchino, taleggio etc
There is not an exact amount of stock to use. It will very much depend on the type of rice and on how hot your hob is. The safest thing to do is to prepare a big batch so you make sure you don’t run out while stirring
“Love a good risotto, but this was all a bit intense to prepare. Let’s say it’s not the kind of recipe you can make while watching TV!”
He is being a bit dramatic here, I think the final taste and texture with 100% justify the effort.
