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Risotto a Ritalienne {Italian Risotto}

A saffron and tomato risotto cooked with stock, parmesan, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,065 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Risotto a Ritalienne {Italian Risotto}

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the rice well, then drain and dry it.

  2. Chop the onion finely and fry it in hot butter in a saucepan until light brown.

  3. Add the rice and shake the pan over the heat for a few minutes.

Cook the risotto

  1. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and saffron, then moisten with a little stock.

  2. As the rice swells, gradually add more stock.

  3. When the stock is used up, add the tomato sauce gradually.

  4. Once the rice is tender, mix in the grated cheese and serve.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Italian or patna rice
Starch that absorbs stock and swells, giving the risotto its creamy, tender body.
Butter
Fat that coats the rice grains and adds richness and flavour when the onion is fried.
Parmesan cheese
Melts into the hot rice at the end, adding savoury flavour and creaminess.
Tomato sauce
Adds moisture, acidity and colour, flavouring the rice as it is absorbed.
Stock
Liquid that the rice absorbs gradually, cooking it while building savoury flavour.
Saffron
Provides distinctive aroma and a golden colour to the rice.

The step that matters

Adding the stock gradually. Rice releases starch as it is stirred and absorbs liquid slowly. Adding stock in small amounts as it is absorbed keeps the grains moist and creamy. Adding it all at once leaves the rice soggy or unevenly cooked.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, butter, onion, parmesan cheese, tomato, sauce, pepper):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, butter, onion, parmesan cheese, tomato, sauce, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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