All is Well in the Piazza and a Midnight Risotto

By Marialiberati

Wow summer is soon coming to an end.. my book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking Diaries:Seasons will soon be here….I wanted to share my diaary and a risotto recipe from the upocming books in honor of summers past.

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Here’s my diary entry frim summers’ past:

Midnight..mezzanotte.. and almost ready to leave the office. With music loudly playing in the piazza -a block away from my window-I can barely concentrate. The end of the summer is drawing near and everyone is trying to soak up every last drop of the pleasures of the summer- the weather, the warm summer nights, the air, the food ,the fun..

Anyway,  as I set out to do before I go home tonight, I want to send you a souvenir of my day here. Besides working and writing, and meetings, eating and cooking takes up some part of the day. The souvenir I can send today is the wonderful taste of  today’s lunch. I made a simple’ risotto con funghi’ with the fresh mushrooms. I was able to find them at at the market early this morning walking to the office.

I prefer to eat risotto in the winter time since it does require 20 minutes of concentrated stirring over the gas range.  But withstanding the heat for 20 minutes was well worth the results!! Enjoy.

Midnight Mushroom Risotto

1 cup of carnaroli or arborio rice

4 cups of broth

1 slice of fresh onion

a small handful of freshly chopped parsley

2 tblsps of olive oil

2 tblsps of parmigiano-reggiano cheese

1 cup of dry white wine

Saute onion slice in olive oil till golden, place in sliced, washed mushrooms. Pour in some broth and simmer for about 5 minutes. Pour in cup of rice, then cup of white wine. Put timer on for 16 minutes. Continuously stir and add broth in as liquid dries up. When timer goes off, taste. If not finished, add more broth until al dente.

When finished, place in serving dishes and top with fresh parsley and freshly grated parmigiano-reggaino cheese.

Serve with chilled white wine.

Ciao for now

Maria

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