Risotto con Asparagi

Where Patience Meets Pale Spring Green

Risotto is not a recipe so much as a rhythm. There is something almost meditative about standing at the stove, ladle in hand, coaxing starch and liquid into something slow and yielding. Asparagus arrives each spring like a quiet reminder that abundance can be delicate — tender and brief and worth attending to. Together, they make a dish that rewards presence over speed, stillness over urgency. This is the kind of cooking that asks you to stay a little longer at the stove, and somehow, you never mind.

Ingredients

• 6 cups chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons Alessi Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1/2 onion, finely minced
• 1 1/2 cups Alessi Arborio Rice
• 1/2 cups dry white wine
• 3/4 pounds fresh asparagus, base discarded and cut into 1" pieces
• 1/4 cups Parmesan cheese, grated
• Alessi Sea Salt and Ground Black Pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. In a saucepan, keep chicken broth simmering.
2. In a separate 4 quart heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat butter and olive oil, add onion and sauté until onion is transparent.
3. Add Arborio rice and stir until well coated (approximately 1 minute).
4. Then add wine and stir until absorbed.
5. From this point, cooking time is about 18 minutes.
6. It is important to keep stirring through the entire cooking process.
7. Add enough broth to barely cover the rice.
8. Continually stir while cooking until broth is absorbed.
9. Continue in this manner adding ½ cup broth each time.
10. Adjust heat to keep rice cooking at a slow boil.
11. After 8 minutes, add asparagus.
12. Continue the cycle of adding broth while stirring and cooking.
13. Risotto should be creamy and moist, tender yet firm to the bite (al dente).
14. Remove from heat, stir in cheese, adjust with salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately.