Hi! Guys once again my name is Rob Carson. I am a radio Announcer and I cook. And my goal of this video is quite simple. To bring family, friends, and fellow foodies together in the kitchen, and also to demystify things that you might be afraid to try otherwise. Today, we are making risotto.

Now you can do a lot of different things with risotto. It’s a broad palette that you can paint on. Its like pasta you can add all sort of stuff to pasta, you can add all sort of stuff to pizza everything from potatoes to pepperoni. Today, we are doing risotto verde which is also known as asparagus risotto. Now, this looks a little more complicated than it is but basically it’s fairly simply.
We’ve got some nice asparagus, we’ve got Arborio rice which is risotto rice, we’ve got some parmesan cheese, nicely shredded, butter. I’ve got two saute pans going one for some additional asparagus that I’m going to caramelize and another saute pan that I’m going to use actually to cook the risotto in. We need a pan to blanch our asparagus in. We need a large bowl with some ice water in it to cool the asparagus. We need one spoon preferably and that’s about it.
So the first thing I’m going to do guys, I’m going to double up this recipe. I’m going to take about seven or eight nice stalks of this asparagus. Now these are big stalks of asparagus. I’ve cut about two inches off them because I want to get to the tender asparagus. I’m going to blanch this real quick. It is going to be a little longer than a typical blanch just because it is so thick, so thick that it is. So I’m going to drop in there, I’m going to give it normally with a blanch you just set in there for 10 to 15 seconds then take it out.
I’m going to leave this in for closer to about a minute just again because it is thick. I’m going turn on this back burner with some additional asparagus and what I did is I took the smaller ends of the asparagus for this. And I’m going to just cook this up a little bit on a medium heat and its going to start to kind of brown little bit and become really tender. We’re going to add that for texture at the end here.
With the blanched asparagus, we’re actually going to puree it and what it will do is not only flavor the risotto, it’s also going to add really cool color, especially if like green. My asparagus has been blanched. I’m going to take the smaller ones out here and then I’m just going to drop them in this ice water. What this does, it stops the cooking process. It also preserves the crispness of the asparagus and you’re going to wonder why I did that in a minute because I’m just going to basically puree it. But I don’t want mushy asparagus like the stuff you get in the can. One of the things that I learned as a fry cook at a truck stop in Iowa on Interstate-80, was how to get things done at the same time. Have multiple pans going and you have to get it done all at the same time, everything hot. Any good chef knows that that’s obviously the way you got to do it. But working in a truck stop helped me, believe it or not.
All right so now I got my asparagus starting to brown, do you see that? I’m going to bring my heat down. Just let it sit here for another minute or two and like I said we wanted to caramelize it a little bit. Over here, I have got a tablespoon of olive oil and some chopped garlic. I’m going to let this heat up a little up then I am going to add my Arborio rice. There we go. I get my garlic going. I’m going to add two cups of Arborio rice this is a big batch. You can cut it in half if you like. I’m going to let this brown a little bit then I’m going to add some wine. Well that’s cooking. I think this is about done and I’m going to add this at the very end again for texture.
All right, it’s getting little sticky so I’m going go ahead and add about half cup of wine. Now I’d bring my heat down to medium and I’m going to let the wine kind of cook off and what that does is it intensifies the flavor. It’s like doing a wine reduction. So you’re going to have an instance wine flavor but all the alcohol is going to go away. Most of it anyway. While this is happening, I’m going to take my blanched asparagus and put it in my food processor. Now it’s still fairly crisp and I’m going to make a puree out of this. Okay, we have a nice asparagus puree. Now this is a little coarse, kind of like my personality. If you want it really fine, use it once.
All right so my wine is pretty much cooked off. Now I’m going to start adding chicken broth. Now generally when it comes to Arborio rice and broth, you’re going to use about three times the volume of the broth as you would rice. I have got two cups of rice so I am going to do at least six cups of broth and we’re going to add a little bit at a time. Okay, not all at once, you don’t want all at once. You let it absorb gradually and you keep adding.
Now see how this is getting creamy and see how it’s starting to thicken. Good, go ahead and add some more broth. As this cooks and you’re going to be cooking this for probably 20 to 30 minutes but as it cooks, check periodically. Take a grain out and if its al dente, then obviously you can stop adding the broth. You don’t want to add too much broth in make risotto soup. So add broth about a couple of time until you get to the desired consistency.
Okay guys, now this has been going for about 20 minutes to half an hour, it has been while and it has absorbed a lot of chicken broth. Again, I have started with two cups of Arborio rice. I’ve added about seven cups of chicken broth and I am going to go ahead and taste this real quick here. It is al dente. It’s got a little bit of crispness to it. It’s not mushy. I am going take some of my puree out of the asparagus and I’m going add. I’m not going to add all of it. This is going to add some color and it’s also going to infuse the risotto with asparagus flavor. There we go. Let’s get my caramelized asparagus out of here and add it. I don’t want to use all that oil that’s in there so try to avoid that. Then the piece de resistance, the cheese, and the butter.
This is all coming together. Now, I’m going to bring my heat down to fairly low because I really don’t want it to cook anymore. Okay, cheese. I’ve got about a cup and a half here and as far as I am concerned, go crazy with the cheese because it’s awesome. There you go.
Now, I want to finish with a little bit of butter, just little. Go about two teaspoons. Add that, melt my butter in there. This is so good. All right guys there you go. That’s a risotto Verde also known as asparagus risotto. It’s not as hard you thought it was, is it? Yeah it is pretty easy. You can serve this is a side on a palate, plate it with whatever you decide maybe grilled shrimp or grilled scallops or even you know a steak. It works perfectly and it is also great by itself as well.
Risotto Verde, enjoy it.