Memories of Monticchiello con Risotto al Limone

Podere San Guisto

The Picky Eater's idea of heaven on earth is our friends' Ann & Pier Paolo's farmhouse in the Monteleone, about halfway between Pisa & Florence.

La Foce

Our last visit was in the summer of 2011, and one of our forays was a field trip to La Foce, the famous house and garden of the Anglo-American writer Iris Origo. (I highly recommend her autobiography, Images and Shadows: Part of a Life, which details her early years traveling the globe with her wealthy gypsy parents, her youth in Florence when her mother held court with the likes of Bernard Berenson, and the years of hard work she and her Italian husband spent reclaiming the impoverished lands and people that were La Foce.)

Montecchiello view

The daddy will be happy to tell you that any day trip with me in Spain, France or Italy always includes the obligatory two hour lunch, and this day was no different. As usual, we arrived our at destination just in time for lunch- at La Taverna di Moranda in the beautiful village of Montecchiello in the southern Tuscan region of Pienza. Not only is Montecchiello sited on a gorgeous hilltop with amazing views, it also has the best linen shop I have yet to encounter anywhere and a tiny altarpiece "Madonna con bambino" by Pietro Lorenzetti.

The Picky Eater ordered her standard pasta with tomato sauce but for some unknown reason (perhaps a desperate attempt on the chef's part to make it more interesting?) it tasted "too spicy" to her, and seeing her untouched plate, the chef's wife / hostess told us that her seven year old daughter loved it and didn't find it too spicy! Ann, a fellow vegetarian, ordered lemon risotto, which she liked very much and later tried to recreate at home using a recipe for lemon-asparagus risotto from Alice Water's The Simple Art of Food, without the asparagus, and with mixed results.

Ann & the Picky Eater trying to digest
 her spicy pasta 

Linen shop con gatto

Ann is here in Palo Alto visiting her father at the moment and last week we made another go at it. Please note that some hardy soul has to be prepared to wield a spoon and stir for almost all of the 17-20 minutes that it takes to cook the risotto to a creamy finish.

Here is the very delicious result of our experiments-

Amalgamated Lemon Risotto
(a distillation of 2 recipes- one from Patricia Wells' Trattoria 
& one from Nigella Lawson courtesy of the Food Network)

3 shallots, finely chopped
2 ribs of celery, small dice
6-7 cups of vegetable broth
3 Tb butter
2 Tb olive oil
2 cups Italian Arborio or Canaroli rice
1/2 c. white wine
1-2 Tb grated lemon zest
2-4 Tb fresh lemon juice
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese, grated
Fresh ground pepper
Salt to taste

Optional:
1 egg yolk
4 Tb heavy cream
4 Tb grated Parmesan cheese

Ann stirring up a storm

In a large saucepan, heat the stock and keep it at a low simmer.

Melt 2 Tb of the butter and all the olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan over moderate heat. Saute the shallots and celery until the shallots are soft and translucent, about 3 minutes, but do not let them brown. Add the rice and stir until it is well coated with the butter/oil mixture, glistening and semitranslucent, about 1-2 minutes. (Do not skip this step! It helps separate the grains of rice.)

When the rice is shiny, add a ladle of stock, and cook, stirring constantly, until the rice has absorbed most of the stock, which will take 1-2 minutes. Add additional ladlefuls of stock one at a time, stirring constantly, as each ladleful is absorbed. Adjust the heat if necessary to maintain a gentle simmer. Continue adding stock, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan. Taste the risotto regularly until the rice is almost tender but firm to the bite, about 17 minutes. The risotto should have a creamy, porridge-like consistency.

The delicious results!

Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the remaining tablespoon of butter, half of the lemon zest and half the lemon juice, and the Parmesan. Taste and increase the lemon zest and juice to the desired level of "lemony-ness," and add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve immediately.  Serves 4 to 6.

As an alternate finish, you can beat the egg yolk with the cream and Parmesan, and stir it into the risotto along with the lemon zest and juice. This makes for an even creamier and richer tasting risotto.