Lemon Risotto (a la Giatta)

Hello and welcome!

This recipe comes from Giatta's cookbook, courtesy of my Aunt Connie, as part of our Lemon Christmas :)

Lemon Christmas began as the story of a neighborhood tradition, and grew from our love of cooking and food into Domathes with Lemon Sauce, Lemon Chicken, Lemon Risotto, Lemon Broccoli, and Limoncello Cookies. It was the best, most successful five hours of cooking I've ever experienced. This recipe is one I would love to make again, because it's fantastically addictive!


The Recipe: Lemon Risotto

• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (2-3 lemons)
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter 
• 2 large shallots, diced
• 1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
• 1/2 cup white wine for cooking (can be found near the olive oil and balsamic vinegar)
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesean cheese 
• 1/4 cup mascarpone cheese
• Zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley

The Process:

1. In a medium saucepan, bring the broth and half of the lemon juice to a simmer. Cover to keep warm. 
2. In another pan, melt 2 tbsp of butter over medium heat. 
3. Sautee the shallots in the butter for about 3 minutes. 
4. Add rice and stir. You do not need to cook the rice beforehand. 
5. Add the white wine and remaining lemon juice and cook for about 3 minutes, continuing to stir. 
6. Add small portions of the broth and lemon juice mixture in the other pot (about 1/2 cup each time) to the pan with the rice and shallots. 
7. Once each is fully mixed, continue slowly adding and stirring until all broth is in the mixture. 
8. Add in remaining ingredients: parsley, mint, parmesean, mascarpone, salt, pepper, and lemon zest. 
9. Stir over low heat until creamy. 
10. To serve in "lemon cups": hollow out lemon halves used for juice, but not zest. Cut off tip so it is flat. Fill with risotto. 
11. We recommend only serving the first portion in a lemon cup and keeping the remainder in a bowl on the table, to save time. 
12. Try to stop eating ;)

The Calories: 

Chicken broth: 77 calories

Lemon juice: 30 calories
Butter: 306 calories
Shallots: 14 calories
Arborio rice: 363 calories
Wine: 80 calories
Parmesean: 216 calories
Mascarpone: 146 calories
Zest of lemon: 11 calories

Salt: 0 calories
Black pepper: 0 calories
Parsley: 2 calories

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TOTAL: 1245 calories

This batch made quite a bit of risotto. We had enough for 6 lemon cups, plus maybe 2 cups in a bowl. This would make about 15 servings. That means each serving is only 83 calories! 

What went right: 

          This was absolutely delicious. We really nailed the risotto. Giatta, great recipe, and Aunt Connie, thank you so much for teaching me! I think I ate the most of anyone because I just couldn't stop. Even my little brother tried it and didn't hate it :) The consistency was fantastically rich, but still light enough to not densely clump. Love. 

What went wrong: 

         It's entirely possible that I now have a risotto addiction. Just kidding! But really, nothing went wrong with this recipe. 

What I would do next time:

         Risotto is something I would definitely love to make again. Mushrooms are one of my favorite ingredients, so I would like to make a mushroom risotto. Weirdly enough, I just ate red pepper risotto at the Emory cafeteria (Dobbs University Center AKA the DUC) and it was...not terrible. I think they used white cheddar instead of mascarpone, which made it very dense, and there were no shallots (sad day!), but it was still more impressive than I expected and quite well-timed! It would also be fun to try putting squash in risotto. I've also seen caprese and saffron risottos that looked quite delicious!

Would I make this in college: 

         Given that it's essentially a single pan and single pot dish, oh yes! I would make a much smaller batch, because there's no way I could keep myself from eating it all, but it doesn't take very long to make and the marginal return on taste is enormous. 

Overall, an amazing second course to Lemon Christmas, and a simple base cooking technique that will definitely become some fun experiments in the future :)