Risotto Alla Milanese

Risotto alla Milanese

Risotto alla Milanese is the typical dish par excellence of the economic heart of Northern Italy, the city of Milan. This very simple dish is particularly fascinating for its golden color, conferred by saffron, the main ingredient of the recipe. Not everyone knows, though, that the traditional recipe of the Risotto alla Milanese also contains marrow from an ox bone, a fundamental ingredient for enriching the flavor. Masked, heavily spiced, multicolor dishes were the prerogative of medieval European and Arab cuisine, designed to impress the rich and powerful lords at the table.

In the 14th century rice was only grown extensively near Naples. From here, thanks to the close relations that connected the Aragonese to the Visconti and Sforza families, its cultivation was established in the Po valley and in particular near Vercelli. This is the reason why starting in the early 1500's, cookbooks started to suggest dishes where rice played a major role.

Saffron

Origins of the Dish

The ancestor of Risotto alla Milanese appears in the middle of the 16th century. Indeed, according to legend, the precise date of its birth is the eighth of September 1574. The Belgian master glazier Valerio di Fiandra, who worked on the site of the Cathedral of Milan, had planned the wedding of his daughter for this date. Among the many dishes offered, a dish made of golden rice was served. It was colored with saffron that was also used for coloring the glass windows of the cathedral. The preparation, which was done in jest, obtained a great success among the guests who appreciated both the flavor and the color.

This was indeed the time when gold and, if not available, any yellow substance, were considered an important pharmacological remedy. This was why sometimes gold dust was added to food. Immediately this new way of preparing rice spread throughout the city ... But the most reliable historical sources tell us that until 1700 there is no mention of a risotto cooked in this particular way and the predominant technique seems to be boiling in water.

The definitive recipe appears at the beginning of the 19th century in the book "Modern Chef", printed in Milan in 1809. In 1839, Francesco Cherubini asserts, in the Milanese-Italian dictionary, that the rice must be "flooded" with a good stock.

To find a recipe called "Yellow Milanese Rice" you has to go to the year 1853 with the publication of "Il Nuovo Cuoco Milanese" of the famous Milanese chef Felice Luraschi.

Early in the 1900's, white wine also appears as an ingredient. It serves, with its acidity, to remove from the taste the flavor of the beef 's marrow and fat.

Nowadays the recipe has been perfected and one has to fry the rice in a bit of butter. The cooking is started using the stock, then the saffron is added; in the meantime the onion is fried in a little butter and white wine, adding fresh cold butter to obtain a smooth cream. Stir the Risotto with this butter at the end of the cooking.

Rice with Saffron

Risotto alla Milanese Recipe

Ingredients for 4 people:

- 400 g of rice
- 1 liter of beef stock
- 1/2 cup of dry white wine
- 40 g of butter
- 40 g of beef bone marrow
- 60 g Grana Padano cheese (matured 24 months)

- 30 g of onions
- 0.5 g of saffron

Preparation

Saffron Flower

Fry the onion in 20g of butter with the crushed marrow, add the rice and cook on a medium-high flame for 2-3 minutes, stirring gently but often. Then add the white wine and let it evaporate. Then add 3 ladles of the hot stock, mix gently and do not touch until the next addition of the stock. Halfway through the cooking add the saffron dissolved in a spoonful of hot stock. Turn off the heat when the rice is still just slightly firm (al dente) and its texture is still fairly liquid. Add 20 g of the butter and the cheese and stir vigorously (whisk) for 20-30 seconds, and leave the risotto for 1 minute and only then serve it.