How to make an authentic Italian risotto with these surprising star ingredients

When you think of cooking a creamy delicious risotto, the standard ingredients such as butter, Italian hard cheese and olive oil are usually the go to essential items to form your base. However, according to Italian professionals it turns out we have been doing it all wrong! By not choosing a premium hard cheese such as Grana Padano PDO, and leaving out one key ingredient that is guaranteed to make your risotto pop with flavour, and that is none other than our beloved sparkling bottle of pop, Prosecco DOC.

Italian professionals, recommend adding a glass of Brit’s popular fizz, before ladeling the stock to the onions and rice in the traditional slow method of preparing a risotto. The unique nutty and creamy taste from Grana Padano PDO pairs perfectly with the fruity and fresh notes from Prosecco DOC, that elevates a risotto to the next level.

In the risotto, Grana Padano PDO melts beautifully to create a delicious, creamy choux. Experts recommend any age of Grana Padano would work perfectly in a risotto, but for a richer and stronger taste, particularly when paired with the prosecco, a Grana Padano PDO Riserva aged over 20 months is encouraged to create a perfectly balanced flavour.

A spokesperson from Consorzio Tutela Prosecco DOC said, “It’s very common in cuisine to add wine to food while cooking, like adding red wine to red meat dishes, but in Italy, we also like to utilise our beloved sparkling wine. A lot of care is put into producing Prosecco DOC, and that high level of attention to detail can be tasted from both a glass and a plate.”

So, if you are wondering how to make the most out of your bottles of fizz, ponder no more as with this genius solution, you can enjoy a Prosecco DOC aperitivo whilst utilising it in your cooking at the same time. Create the perfect mid-week dinner by adding it to your risotto, enhancing the flavour by miles, allowing you, and your loved ones to dine like the culinary pro’s in Italy.

To honour and celebrate the perfect pairing of the two Italian hero’s in this dish and following their recent launch of education project, Cheers and Cheese to EU: Grana Padano PDO and Prosecco DOC, have joined forces to provide us with the recipe for the perfect fizzy fuelled risotto. Guaranteed to shake up your taste buds. And if you are one of the millions of brits, who put the UK in the Number 1 purchasing spot of Prosecco globally in 2021 (a staggering 122M bottles of Prosecco DOC was imported into the UK alone), this star dish will leave you wondering what other dishes you can add your favourite bottle of fizz to!

Risotto with Prosecco DOC Grana Padano PDO and lemon

Serves 4 people

Ingredients

• 320g of rice

• 1 bottle of Prosecco DOC

• 1 litre of vegetable stock

• 1 onion

• 2 lemons

• 50g of butter

• 50g of Grana Padano PDO

• Olive oil

• Salt & Pepper

Method:  

1. Squeeze the two lemons and set aside the juice. Next, grate the rind of the lemons, taking care not to reach the pulp.
2. Chop the onion very finely and place it in a large saucepan and then add a drizzle of olive oil. Turn the heat on a low flame and fry the onion. Once browned, add the rice and toast for a couple of minutes, mixing with the oil and onion.
3. Pour a glass of Prosecco DOC into the pan and simmer until it has evaporated. Now start adding the vegetable stock (pre-mixed with warm water). The liquid stock should be added one ladle at a time. Once the rice has absorbed all the liquid, you can add the second ladle and so on until the rice is cooked. Don't forget to keep stirring.

4. Halfway through cooking the rice, add the lemon juice and another glass of Prosecco D.O.C. and continue to mix.
5. Once the rice is cooked, add the butter and Grana Padano PDO, adjust with pepper and salt according to your taste and keep mixing for a creamy consistency.
6. Your risotto is ready to plate and serve.