Risotto Cacio E Pepe
Ingredients
- 1 cup Mahatma® Arborio Medium Grain Rice
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp minced shallots
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth, heated
- 1/2 cup freshly grated pecorino Romano cheese
- 2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
- chopped parsley, optional
Instructions
Step 1
In a large heavy bottomed saucepan, heat butter and oil over medium heat. Add shallots and garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Step 2
Add rice and sauté until all grains are coated and become slightly transparent. About 2 minutes.
Step 3
Add one cup of hot broth to pan and stir constantly until almost all the broth is absorbed. Continue to stir, adding hot broth ½ cup at a time, allowing it to absorb before adding additional broth.
Step 4
When the grains are “al dente” remove pot from heat and quickly stir in cheese and pepper. Continue to stir until cheese is well incorporated and mixture is creamy, adding a bit more hot broth if the risotto is too thick. Serve immediately topped with parsley, if desired.
Recipe Tips
Pecorino Romano is a sheep milk cheese and is traditional for this dish.
You can substitute Parmesan cheese for a milder flavor.
Al dente is when the rice grains are still a bit firm and chewy.
How to Mince Garlic
If you want to mince your garlic but don’t have a mincer, there is absolutely no problem. If you only need a few cloves, first place the entire bulb, root side down, on a cutting board. Apply pressure to the top of the bulb with the heel of your hand to release the cloves.
The next step is to use your fingers to crack the cloves apart and extract them from the root. Now that you have them, gather as many individual cloves as you need for the recipe.
Trim the root and tip of each garlic clove with a knife. Lay the flat side of a chef’s knife over a clove with the blade facing away from you.
Use light pressure to lightly crush the clove between the cutting board. The papery skin of the clove should be easy to separate.
Put your free hand on the top of the blade, near the tip, with your fingertips in contact with the edge to help secure the knife (the tip should stay in the same place as you mince). Once the required size has been minced or chopped, fan the food by rocking the knife up and down, left to right, and back and forth.
The Ideal Moment to Mince Garlic
Garlic should ideally be minced right before it is added to a dish. More enzymes are released and more allicin is created as garlic is broken down over a longer period of time. It will become more delicious with additional time. Keep in mind, though, that if left unattended for too long, it may also grow overwhelming.
How to Store Garlic
If you can’t use the garlic right away, store it in a small, airtight container in the refrigerator until you can. If at all possible, try to use the garlic immediately after chopping it or within an hour. Garlic may become quite bitter and overwhelming in a recipe if it is allowed to remain for longer than six hours.
What is the Difference Between Chopped and Minced
When compared to minced garlic, chopped garlic is more gritty, bigger, and spicier. For flavoring stews, soups, or just the oil in meals, chopped is great. Garlic that has been minced has a considerably finer texture. It works best for dressings, sauces, or fast cooked dishes like stir-fries that don’t have large parts left over.
Cooking with Shallots
The shallot, a member of the onion family, has a flavor that is light, sweet, and evocative of an onion and garlic hybrid. Shallots are significantly distinct from scallions, which are frequently confused with them.
The shallot is an oblong-shaped bulb with papery skin that is copper in color. When a recipe only calls for a small bit of onion or shallot, the white or purple-tinted flesh underneath, which is separated into cloves that resemble garlic, is the perfect substitute.
You can remove one clove and save the others for another time. The shallot is a common ingredient in French cooking, despite its image as a fancy aromatic. It is inexpensive, simple to use, and tasty in a wide range of dishes.
At most large supermarkets, shallots are often grouped with the onions and garlic. They are a useful and long-lasting pantry necessity to have on hand because they may stand in for garlic, onions, or even scallions in a pinch.
