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Risotto a LA Milanese

A creamy rice dish with butter, onion, tomatoes, mushrooms, and Parmesan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Risotto a LA Milanese

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a hot pan, melt the butter or oil.

  2. Add the chopped onion and cook until brown.

  3. Stir in the chopped tomatoes and soaked mushrooms, cooking for about 10 minutes.

Cook the rice and serve

  1. Add a handful of rice for each person and a little pepper, avoiding salt.

  2. Stir continuously, adding chicken broth as needed until the rice is nearly cooked.

  3. Mix in the grated Parmesan 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. Mushroom + chickentop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Rice + chickentop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Mushroom + parmesan cheesetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

  4. Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Italian rice
Starch that absorbs broth and releases starch for a creamy, tender texture.
Chicken broth
Liquid that the rice absorbs slowly, cooking it while building flavor and moisture.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty depth and helps make the finished rice creamy.
Dried mushrooms
Concentrated earthy flavor that deepens the savory character of the dish.
Onion
Sweetens and builds a savory flavor base when cooked until browned.

The step that matters

Stir continuously while adding broth. Stirring rubs starch off the rice grains and keeps them moving, which releases starch into the liquid and gives the creamy texture. Adding broth gradually lets each addition absorb before the rice scorches or turns mushy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, tomato, mushroom, rice, pepper, parmesan cheese, chicken. 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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