-I am your sous chef today. -Oh, wow.
-I'm assisting you. Whatever you need, Doda.
-Hopefully somebody was recording that.
-Buon giorno.
I'm Lidia Bastianich, and this is Chef Fortunato Nicotra,
and we are the team at Felidia Restaurant.
Today you're going to have a lesson in making risotto.
We love making risotto, but it's not easy.
To help you in that as well, we just came out with a new book,
"The Felidia Cookbook."
-One of my favorite is
risotto with beet, goat cheese, and balsamic.
It's a little different than any other risotto.
-But it's delicious.
-We're gonna start with -- with beets, just raw beets.
-How long do you let it cook?
-35, 40 minutes until they are soft.
We're gonna do a reduction of balsamic.
In the restaurant, we use traditional balsamic,
25 years aged, crazy expensive, but you can make your own.
So you can buy, like, a cheaper balsamic,
and you can put some of the aroma or herbs you like to.
We're gonna use some bay leaves,
just a little bit of rosemary, clove of garlic.
-And so this you let cook until it almost comes down to half.
-Syrupy, syrupy consistency.
-Like molasses. I think the beets are done.
This is how you test, you put the fork in there
and it has to penetrate the beet,
but you have to feel a little resistance.
-Yeah, it will definitely be firm.
Nice and firm. -So you peel it just like that.
-Yeah. -Take the skin off,
and you're going to reserve the liquid too, right?
-Yeah, for the risotto. We like the color,
also the flavor not just the color.
-You shred the beets.
-So we're going to save some of the cooking liquid.
-Mm-hmm.
-We're going to strain the little pieces of the beet.
I always call it the barba, barba of the beet.
-The beard, the beard of the beet.
-Set and ready to go now.
-The balsamic vinegar is getting denser and denser,
and it's coating the spoon.
We'll let it boil a little more. What do you think, Doda?
-Yeah, I think probably five, six more minutes.
-Little more. -Yep.
-Okay. So we'll clean up here, and we go to the risotto making.
Risotto, now we're into it.
Risotto technique is one of going back and forth
putting stock into the risotto,
so a nice white pan is important.
Even distribution of heat to every kernel of the rice.
Risotto begins with some flavoring agent,
usually onion, shallots.
To make risotto, you need short-grain rice.
The short grain starch is the one that kind of breaks down,
and you want to coax out of the kernel into the risotto
to make it creamy.
The process of a risotto is you beginning to flavor the base.
-We want to just sweat the onion.
We need to be sure it's not a really high flame
because we don't want to burn the onions.
-And you want the onions to disintegrate into your risotto,
so you want it mellowly cooked.
Let it kind of break down,
and then with the addition of wine, of everything else,
it will become part of the risotto,
and that's what you want.
So you put the rice in
when you felt the onion was wilted enough.
What he's doing now here,
he is actually toasting the rice, on dry,
it's just the oil, toasting each kernel
so that he builds, like, a shell around it
that will contain the integrity of the rice.
-Next is wine.
-You want a good wine.
You want a wine that you would drink.
Toasted rice is thirsty.
It's taking in the acidity and the flavor of the wine.
So every little movement, every addition that you do,
has a reason in risotto.
What's next, Doda?
-Next is we can start to add our liquid.
The wine has completely been absorbed,
so we can start with -- with broth.
We put a little bit of the broth.
-You can have chicken. You can have vegetable.
You know, if you're a vegetarian,
this is a vegetarian dish.
He's adding a little bit of the beet water
to give it some color and, again, flavor.
Now we're going to begin to pull out those starches,
and you do that by adding the liquid a little bit at a time.
You have to do it in steps, and that's why you have to be
close to the risotto to really get that creaminess,
to continuously mix it and stir it.
-One other thing you have to be careful also
is that everything have to be inside the liquid,
so that's why we look at the wall here around the pot.
There's nothing around because we want to be everything
in sauce so it's going to be cooked even.
I add part of the shredded beets
and add a little more broth, a little more beet juice.
-Do I have to stay by the risotto all the time,
14, 15 minutes? Well, not really.
You know, we jump around the kitchen,
but you always have to have your mind, your ear,
to the -- to -- to what's on the stove,
and sounds can tell you a lot.
What could happen to a risotto, since there's a lot of starch,
and if you can see in these bubbles they're glossy,
they're viscous, and that's the starch.
Starch can scorch very easily,
so you always have to keep the base clean and moving,
either mixing it or a little bit more addition of stock,
lowering the temperature.
-We going to whip the risotto with butter, goat cheese,
and Grana Padano.
-This is the reduction of balsamic vinegar.
I spilled it a little here. Taste it.
It's also good on ice cream.
This, you put it on ice cream,
you have a nice sundae with balsamic vinegar.
-Goat cheese.
So a little Grana Padano cheese.
If you don't like goat cheese, you can use anything else,
any other soft cheese
like Brie or Camembert or Fontina Taleggio.
-When you add in like that, the last minute, not cooking
that much, you get the maximum flavor of the cheese,
the maximum flavor of the butter.
Whatever you put in really stands out.
He's shaking it a little bit.
He's trying to get some air in there also,
gives it a fluffiness.
This is a traditional step in cooking risotto in Italy.
It's good. A little salt, maybe pepper.
Allora, it's time for you and I to taste.
-Finally.
-Every chef needs a little reward at the end.
So I'm ready. I'm finished with explanations.
-Alright. That's for you.
-Thank you. Grazie.
-That's for me. -Allora.
-Salute. -Buon appetito,
from our table at Felidia to your table at home.
Get cooking and enjoy.
Salute.
The rice is al dente.
Italians, that's what we want.
The beets bring the sweetness,
and the goat cheese and the balsamic vinegar, mystery.
What is this ingredient?
All together, it's really delicious.
Click on the link below, get the recipe and get cooking.
Cin-cin. Salute. -Salute.
♪♪
-We cooked for Pope Benedict as well as for Pope Francis
when they came to the United States.
-We say the risotto's not gonna wait, not even for the Pope.
-The Pope has to sit down and eat his risotto.
And Francis loved his risotto. -Oh, yeah.
