Onion Risotto with Parmesan and Basil

Onion Risotto

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Today we’re making an original onion risotto. Whatever you say, the Italians know a thing or two about delicious, wholesome breakfasts. If you think about it, making yourself breakfast in the morning takes half an hour, and most often no prep at all. Of course, many will say that a cup of coffee and a cheap cigarette replace breakfast just fine. As does a bag of fast food picked up on the way to work.

You have to love yourself. I’m not telling you to make Olivier salad the night before, it’s hardly a holiday. There are simpler options, and, more importantly, quicker ones, like seafood risotto. Every fridge always has onion, garlic, vegetable oil, herbs, some cheese. The pantry or a shelf usually has rice. That’s already enough to make yourself breakfast calmly and fast.

If you prepare a little the day before, or better still pick up Arborio rice, a piece of Parmesan, a bunch of basil and small onion sets or shallots when you go shopping at the market, then what seems a primitive dish, rice with onions, can become onion risotto, risotto con cipolle.

In some clever book, back in childhood, I read that the sharper an onion is, that is, the more it makes you cry, the sweeter it is. A paradox. But even the sharpest onion becomes very tasty when fried. I remember that in childhood fried onion was simply piled onto fresh bread. It was impossible to tear yourself away from such a sandwich. Who’s stopping you from remembering your childhood and combining tasty fried small onions with Arborio to get onion risotto? The liquid is better hot, best of all risotto broth. Another onion variation is leek risotto. I described the basic technique in detail in the recipe for vegetable risotto.

Ingredients

2 servings

  • Arborio rice 200 g
  • Broth (vegetable or chicken) 0.8–1 l
  • Basil 0.5 bunch
  • Garlic 1-2 cloves (and 1-2 more for the cheese, optional)
  • Parmesan 50 g
  • Olive oil 2 tbsp
  • Onion sets 100 g
  • White wine 100 ml
  • Sugar (if the wine is too dry) optional
  • Salt 4–5 g
  • Ground black pepper, dried herbs to taste

Step-by-step recipe

Preparation

What are small onions, onion sets or arpajik? Onions are usually sown from seed and grow to the size of an olive. The following year these small onions are planted in the garden and grow into the usual large onions. Some varieties grow into a full-size bulb in a single year. I remember my grandmother sowing shallots, which in the village were called “korchushka”: slightly purple, sweet little bulbs the size of a large walnut. But I haven’t seen them for a long time, not even at the market. Onion sets, though, are plentiful, especially in spring.

  1. Prepare the onion and garlic: peel the small onions and trim the root end and the tip. Peel the garlic and crush the cloves with the flat of a knife.

    Ingredients: Arborio rice, onion sets, olive oil, garlic, white wine, Parmesan, basil, spices.

Risotto

  1. Flavor the oil with garlic: heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat and fry the garlic in it until golden. The garlic’s only job is to flavor the oil. Then discard the garlic.

    Frying garlic in olive oil in a pan.

  2. Fry the small onions in this oil until soft, taking care not to brown them too much. It’s better to lower the heat and fry them, stirring, until the onions are soft.

    Frying the small onions until soft.

  3. Add the Arborio rice, stir and fry for 4-5 minutes, stirring. Season the rice with salt and pepper; you can add 1-2 pinches of dried aromatic herbs.

    Frying the Arborio rice.

  4. Pour in 100 ml (half a cup) of white wine and keep frying the onions with the rice until the wine is completely absorbed. If the wine is too dry, you can add a little sugar.

    Adding the wine and letting it absorb.

  5. Cook the rice in hot broth. By tradition, hot broth is added to risotto in small portions, and the next portion goes in only after the previous one has been absorbed. By and large, this classic method is rarely used, especially if you’re not in Italy. Most often boiling water is simply added all at once. Arborio can usually absorb 2-3 times its volume of liquid.

    Cook over medium heat, stirring, for about 18 minutes, until the rice is soft but still has a slight bite inside.

Parmesan with basil

  1. Grind the Parmesan with the basil: while the onions and rice cook, pick all the leaves off the basil and grind them in a blender with the Parmesan.

    Parmesan and basil.

    You should get a dry mixture of cheese and herbs with a pleasant green tint. By the way, if you don’t have to meet people, you can add 1-2 cloves of garlic to the cheese.

    Grinding the Parmesan and basil.

Serving

  1. Sprinkle the finished risotto with the basil cheese and stir. Onion risotto should look like a slightly flowing cream, neither too thick nor too thin. Personally, I prefer it thicker.

    Sprinkling with cheese.

  2. Serve onion risotto only hot.

    Onion risotto

Calories and macros

630 kcal

Serving ≈ 410 g

  • Protein17 g11% of kcal
  • Fat21 g31% of kcal
  • Carbs88 g58% of kcal

100 g156 kcalProtein 4.3 gFat 5.2 gCarbs 21.8 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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