Mac and cheese for grownups

Mmm ... risotto.

I know what you're thinking, "risotto," oh puh-leeze. But I'm not just being snooty, I'm getting in touch with my heritage. When my grandmother was a little girl in Italy she went to work with her mother in the rice fields. I've seen photos.

So anyway, it's now one of my favorite foods and one which I'm proud to be able to make. I think I must have inherited my forebears' hardy spoon-mixing wrists, so if you're prone to carpal tunnel disease, kids, don't try this at home. But if you'd like the comfort-foodiness of some Kraft Cheese and Macaroni but want the agony and ecstasy of standing at a hot stove for 40 minutes to prepare a meal that people think is "hard," have at it:

"More Risotto and Cheese, Please!"
6 tsp olive oil
2 cups Arborio rice
1 cup white wine
One box and a can or two of chicken broth
1/2 to 1 cup parmesan cheese (adjust to your taste and lactose tolerance)
4 tbsp butter
a little bit of parsley, for color
salt & pepper to taste *

Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan (I like using my new cast iron dutch oven, but if I halve it I use a regular old Farberware saucepan). Heat the chicken broth in a separate saucepan. Add rice to the oil saucepan and cook, stirring (I use a wooden spoon), for 5 minutes or so; until the rice starts to--for real--sound like glass beads clicking together. Carefully add the wine and stir. When the wine looks like it's all absorbed, start adding hot broth to the rice a ladleful or two at a time. When the spoon leaves a trail in the rice, add more broth. Keep doing this and keep stirring until the rice is all done, about 25 minutes or so. Keep stirring. Add butter, parsley and cheese, salt & pepper to taste. Stir it up a little more. Serve hot all lumped up in a bowl.
Calories: a lot
Servings: a lot


* you may note there are no onions. Often these dishes will start off with onions. I dislike onions.