Carrot Risotto (Risotto alla carota)

Name: Carrot Risotto Recipe with Cream and Parmesan
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 45 min
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Arborio rice 200 g; Broth (vegetable or chicken) 0.8-1 l; Carrot 2; Garlic 2 cloves; Olive oil 2 tbsp and a little for coating the carrots; Parsley 3-4 sprigs; Cream 100 ml; Parmesan 50 g; Salt 4-5 g; Mediterranean herbs (savory, oregano, basil and so on) to taste; Lemon juice, sugar 1 tsp juice, a pinch of sugar if the carrots are bitter (5 g)

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45 mins

“Little rice” is the loving name Italians give to their national rice dish, popular almost everywhere in Italy, although the seafood risotto is more traditional in the north.

Risotto is first mentioned in written sources as early as the 19th century. It is made mostly with local rice varieties that have a very high starch content: arborio, vialone nano and carnaroli.

For example, Risotto ai Funghi Porcini is a risotto where fresh porcini mushrooms are added along with the Italian rice. Risotto con zucchine, with zucchini, is a very popular combination, as is Risotto alla zucca, with pumpkin. And what about the famous Venetian risotto with its fantastic combination of arborio, raisins, herbs and garlic? Or seafood risotto, or vegetable risotto? None of them will leave you indifferent.

Carrot, for instance, is botanically a plant, though in our minds it is a root vegetable. The fleshy root is what we eat. Carrots were probably first grown in Asia, where they still grow wild. They reached Europe almost 1,000 years ago with the Byzantines. And by the way, they weren’t orange but rather yellow. The orange varieties are a product of selective breeding. Rice with carrots, made the way Italian risotto is made, is a great everyday breakfast dish, since it is simple and quick to cook. I explain which rice to use and how to add the broth in my recipe for vegetable risotto. Pumpkin risotto also comes out orange. In the same series, it is worth trying risotto with tomatoes and paprika.

More with chicken, carrots and rice

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Chicken with Basmati Rice and Sweet Raisins

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Chicken Risotto with Parmesan

1 h 10 min

Shrimp Risotto with Peeled Shrimp

45 min

Mexican-Style Seafood Rice

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Ingredients

2 servings

Arborio rice 200 g
Broth (vegetable or chicken) 0.8-1 l
Carrot 2
Garlic 2 cloves
Olive oil 2 tbsp and a little for coating the carrots
Parsley 3-4 sprigs
Cream 100 ml
Parmesan 50 g
Salt 4-5 g
Mediterranean herbs (savory, oregano, basil and so on) to taste
Lemon juice, sugar 1 tsp juice, a pinch of sugar if the carrots are bitter (5 g)

Step-by-step recipe

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Roasting the carrots

To make carrot risotto, the carrots first need to be roasted. You can roast them in an oven or a stove, then cool them a little and peel them.
From experience, though, I can say that roasting carrots, and vegetables in general, this way at home is inconvenient and slow. I roast vegetables in the microwave. There is one catch with carrots: roasted carrots are very hard to peel. It is simply torture.
Roast the carrots in the microwave. So before roasting the carrots, I peel them. I simply scrape them with a knife. Then I dry them with a napkin and coat them with a small amount of olive oil, just enough to form a film. Then I put them in the microwave for 3-5 minutes at full power. That’s it. The carrots come out perfectly roasted.
Let the carrots cool a little so you don’t burn your fingers, and cut them into cubes.

Frying the carrots in aromatic oil

Flavor the oil with garlic. Peel two cloves of garlic and crush them with the flat side of the knife. Note, not the blade (!). Pour 2 tbsp of olive oil into a deep frying pan, heat it over medium heat and fry the garlic in the oil until golden. The garlic’s job is to flavor the oil, and then you throw it away.
Fry the carrots in the flavored oil, first salting them and sprinkling them with dried herbs typical of the Mediterranean region: basil, oregano, savory, mint and so on.
A little secret: if the carrots are coarse, which is the most common case, and have a slightly bitter aftertaste, add a little sugar and 1 tsp of lemon juice. This improves the flavor.
Fry the carrots for a few minutes, stirring constantly.

Cooking the rice

Add the arborio rice to the carrots and stir so the rice is coated with a film of oil.
Next, start adding hot broth (vegetable or chicken) in small portions, 0.8-1 l in all, over medium heat. As soon as one portion is absorbed, add the next. Many people, though, simply add boiling water, with a total volume about 3 times the volume of the rice.
When the rice with carrots is almost done (the grain is soft outside but still a little firm in the middle), pour in 100 ml of cream and stir.
Strictly speaking, risotto is made without cream, but the rice only benefits from it. Keep the rice covered over low heat until it is soft and creamy, with a consistency like very thick honey, though each grain should still stand out clearly in the mass.
Add finely chopped parsley (leaves only) to the rice with carrots.
Sprinkle the rice with carrots with grated Parmesan and stir.