In Italian, risotto, or riso, means rice. But in this country, risotto refers more to a technique of cooking: multiple additions of stock while stirring and stirring and stirring.
At Tra Vigne, we've always liked to experiment with traditional dishes and techniques. Take risotto. In Italy, risotto would be made exclusively with Arborio rice, but we take the technique of cooking risotto to make creamy, flavorful dishes from barley, California wild rice, and pastina.
We make traditional risotto, and because we like to buy ingredients as close to home as possible, we use Arborio rice grown in the Sacramento Valley in Northern California. On the show, we study Arborio rice in California from paddy to package with Jerry Maltby, of Broken Box Ranch and Bill Davies and Jim Higa of California Pacific Rice Milling.
Of course, I also show you how to cook risotto. We begin with a classic dish of pearly-white fresh Arborio rice with asparagus and shiitake mushrooms, then apply the risotto technique of adding stock and stirring like crazy to potatoes and roasted pepper pasta. I even give away my secret for making these alternative risottos as creamy as the real Arborio rice risotto.
