Learn to COOK - Risotto
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List Price: $17.95
Our Price: $12.21
Your Save: $ 5.74 ( 32% )
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Manufacturer: Wiley
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.6318
EAN: 9780020303954
ISBN: 0020303955
Label: Wiley
Manufacturer: Wiley
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 326
Publication Date: 1989-05-10
Publisher: Wiley
Studio: Wiley
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Editorial Reviews:
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"Judith Barrett and Norma Wasserman have written a beautiful book on risotto. [It]...is not just a recipe book but a piece of man's history." —Arrigo Cipriani "Delectable." —Booklist "For the rice lover...this well-crafted book is a unique source." —Chicago Tribune Risotto is the hottest development in Italian cooking since pasta, and Risotto is the definitive book on this classic rice dish from Northern Italy. Risotto contains more than 120 authentic risotto recipes, many of which can be made in thirty minutes or less with a minimum of preparation. Here is just a sampling of the many delicious risotto variations you'll find within these covers: Scallops, Shrimp, and Mushrooms Lamb with Egg and Lemon Sauce Turkey, Red Peppers, and Tomatoes Prosciutto, Chicory, and Fontina Monkfish in Tomato Basil Cream Chicken with Olives Mussels in White Wine Sausage, Artichoke, and Peas Fresh Tuna and Curry Veal in White Cream Sauce In addition to these mouth-watering recipes, Risotto also contains informative chapters on risotto ingredients and preparation methods. For the rice and risotto lover, Risotto is an incomparable kitchen companion.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great Recipe Book
Comment: Great book for the at home chefs. Cooking is something my husband and I love to do, so to find something clear and easy to ready was a must.
Received the book quickly from the seller in described condition.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Classic of American Cookbooks on the Classic Risotto of Northern Italy
Comment: I bought and heavily (!!! see below) used this cookbook soon after it first came out in the late 1980s. It was a breakthrough cookbook for its time, and hugely popular, and is still a wonderful resource that I can recommend today almost without hesitation.
In the late 1980s, I first started seeing risotto offered frequently in Mediterranean or even New American yuppie restaurants in the SF Bay Area when I visited on business--but not yet readily in fine restaurants in Seattle, for instance. Risotto was a clear trend for foodies, but hadn't yet hit mainstream nationally. So it was with impeccable timing that Barrett and Wasserman released "Risotto" in 1987.
I caught the bug early and hard. After I got this cookbok--in one my inspired food specialty frenzies--I wanted to make everything risotto. It was the perfect, versatile one-bowl (though usually 2-3 pots) meal that could fit any flavor or fancy, a base for any vegetables, seafood, meat, fruit, or herbs you wanted to cook with that day. I literally cooked risotto two or three times a week for 8 months, from fall harvest through a Seattle winter and into springtime baby vegetables. And I used this cookbook for all of it.
This cookbook "Risotto" had many virtures. First, it is an exceptionally clear introduction to risotto: its history, varieties of rice, geography, how it is cooked and used, etc. Second, as other reviews state (and you can see in the Search-Inside-The-Book table of contents), it covers many kinds of risotto and has plenty of recipes: cheese, vegetable, meat, fish, fruit, liqueur, leftover.
But the strongest (and non-obvious) feature of this cookbook is how it makes use of its Basic Recipe. Up front, with tips and tools and techniques, it describes a canonical recipe for making risotto: the broth, the oil/butter and minced onion and rice, the first stir of liquid, the stirring and adding broth, the sauteed "soffrito" ingredients, and the final additions of cheese, broth, and sometimes cream to stir in. The cookbook gives ingredient amounts for cooking the basic recipe for different size dinners, with a few additional tips for making more or less than the canonical (serves 4) recipe.
In the rest of the book, recipes all can then say, for instance: Start with the basic recipe, but this time we're going to add the chopped spinach after 10 minutes of stirring in step 3; or Once the rice is coated in the oil, stir in 1/2 cup of white wine (instead of broth); or In the last step, omit the cheese and broth and use 1/2 cup of cream. And of course the soffrito, the usually-sauteed ingredients mixed in, were different for every one.
I usually resist a standardized recipe, feeling like a straitjacket. But this had the opposite effect. Having a single Basic Recipe was a great way to build confidence and proficiency with a new way of cooking. And building 100 recipes off of it--including restrained, classic Italian risottos, together with more creative or adventurous combinations--made it clear how once you'd mastered the Basic Recipe and how to apply it, you could do anything with risotto! And even though I may have made the cookbook sound mechanistic by focusing on the Basic Recipe, it really is one of those cookbooks where all the recipes are a joy to read, with notes about the history of the recipe or about the ingredients, etc.
Now, nearly 20 years later, this cookbook easily stands the test of time. The techniques are clear, straightforward, complete. All of the best-known, classic Italian risottos are present. And there are dozens of variations that are great on their own, and as a guide to what you can create beyond them.
The only small hesitation that I have today with this cookbook is a consequence of its strength. The Basic Recipe is a good learning tool, and is the way that a generation of American home chefs have now been introduced to cooking risotto. But there are actually variations in how risotto is made--what fats to use, how much broth to add and how to stir, using alternative tools like pressure cookers, etc. Once you're an over-the-top risotto fiend like I became, you'll want to explore those as well. Fortunately, one of the co-authors of Risotto (Barrett) went on to publish a follow-on risotto cookbook that is just as delightful--and goes all out with different ways of cooking risotto and more novel and creative recipes. See "Risotto Risotti" at [...]
Oh, so what was my favorite single risotto of the dozens I made from this book? A simple one, actually. An asparagus risotto made with early-spring skinny shoots. It was the most completely-green risotto I've made, and was brimming, overflowing with that aromatic "grassy" flavor of the best asparagus--the closest I've come to ethereal grazing in a bowl.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful recipes
Comment: We love the book and have used it for years. Besides having excellent recipes, the book often serves as a springboard for our own creativity and we have made some riffs on the recipes that we like a lot.
One caveat: I don't know if it's the book, our rice source, our cooking pot, or us, but we invariably find that we need up to a cup more broth than specified, and that it takes us 10-20 more minutes than the recipes suggest (and we like our risotto al dente, so it's not like we're cooking it to mush). Just an FYI; it certainly hasn't kept us from using the book.
There are just two of us, so we always have leftovers, but the suggestions for using them are excellent. In fact, we sometimes make risotto just so we can make the risotto "fritters" the next day.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Don't want to eat out anymore
Comment: This is an excellent cookbook, containing all the necessary information for preparing the recipes easily. Some of the risotto recipes are unusual, and all are delicious. Surprisingly, none have been difficult to prepare (although I hate to admit this!). "Risotto" is a wonderful introduction to Italian cooking, something unique and delicious to dazzle your family and friends with.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One Of My Favorites
Comment: I've owned this book for almost ten years. While I use other risotto recipes for inspiration, I use the proportions and instructions in this book exclusively.
While some recipes aren't the greatest, my opinion probably reflects my personal preferences, not the authors' abilities. And, some recipies (like the one for shrimp, truffle oil, and squash) are worth the price of the entire book! (That recipe, I might add, has caused several friends to go out a purchase a copy for themselves.)
Overall an excellent, much-used addition to my cookbook collection.
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