Risi e Bisi: the magical world of risotto

Do you watch any of those cooking competition shows?  There really are a lot of them, running the gamut from fancy-pants to, well, ones with a lot of bleeped-out words.  Being the classy lady that I am, I watch the one that pretty much invented bleeped-out words - Hell's Kitchen - and have seen contestants get screamed at for their failed risottos more times than I know.  Because of this - I mean, these aren't regular joes, they all worked in professional kitchens already before going on the show - you might think that risotto is some terrifyingly difficult dish that average people can't hope to make.  That's wrong, of course, although making it in your own kitchen at your leisure is very different from making it under pressure in a restaurant with a world-famous chef swearing at you!

What I have for you today is a risotto with bacon and peas that may or may not pass muster in the fancy kitchens of the world, but it's good, it's creamy, and it has bacon in it!

The thing with risotto is that it involves a lot of gradual adding and stirring in of liquid.  There are some folks who say you don't have to be so gradual about it - that you can dump in most of it and give it a good stir and let it absorb for a while, but I've never tried that because I'd probably screw it up and then kick myself for not doing it "right" in the first place!

All risottos work in basically the same way, making them endlessly substitutable and variable.  Here's the breakdown:

1. Get some arborio or carnaroli rice - they're preferable because they absorb the liquid well, and release starch, making the texture creamy, when they do.
2. Heat some olive oil in a pan and saute the rice in it until it's golden, along with your garlic and onion (or shallot, if you have it).
3. Deglaze the pan with some white wine.
4. Now start adding a ladleful of whatever stock you're using to the rice, stirring it in until it's nearly all absorbed before adding another ladle, and so on.
5. When you've used up all the stock, fold in whatever else you're adding, as well as a bunch of parmesan or another cheese, or alternatively cream or butter, to make it all smooth and, well, creamy.

See?  Easy!  I mean, it takes a while, but you're really not doing all that much but stirring.  In this particular recipe, it's a bit different since you're cooking the bacon first and using its fat rather than olive oil, but the basic principles apply.  Risotto: are you down with it?  If not, dive in!  It's easy (well, when you're not simultaneously being cursed out by an angry Scottish man) and oh god SO delicious.  Do it!