Strawberry Risotto

Name: Strawberry Risotto: Creamy Dessert Rice with Fresh Berries
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Cuisine: Italian cuisine
Ingredients: Rice (Arborio) 1 cup (180 g); Hot water or vegetable stock 0.8 l; Strawberries 200 g; Sugar 2 tbsp (27 g); Lemon juice 1–2 tsp; Heavy cream 50 ml; Onion 1; Butter 2 tbsp; Parmesan 2 tbsp (14 g); Salt a pinch; Fresh mint for garnish

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30 mins

So, dessert risotto with strawberries. At the dacha in early summer, when the strawberries ripened, we often cooked all kinds of porridges with ripe berries added. Milk rice porridge with strawberries was loved by everyone without exception. Raspberries came second, but that was later. Porridge with berries just picked from the bush is sweet and fragrant, an affordable treat, just like autumn’s risotto with vegetables, considering that you could add as many berries to the porridge as you liked.

In Italy they don’t really understand porridges; Italians cook risotto, “little rice”. And they can make risotto with almost any additions. In Florence I once got to try an almost dessert-like risotto with strawberries.

Today I unexpectedly found baskets full of strawberries near the market. So summer has come, and despite the dry weather, strawberries are plentiful. Big, sweet, beautiful. Too bad I don’t eat them: I’m allergic. But as Sharikov P.P. said, “I don’t live in this house alone…”

My family, my wife and daughter, can eat a bucket of fresh strawberries given the chance. And they do, as has been checked more than once. But there are a lot of strawberries now. We’ve eaten our fill, with sour cream (especially good), and made strawberry risotto, which is essentially rice porridge with strawberries.

By and large, as many people think, it is enough to cook ordinary soft rice porridge and crumble strawberries into it, or just toss in whole berries. But risotto still has a much more delicate consistency and an incomparable taste. Dessert-style, tasty rice porridge with strawberries, strawberry risotto, is worth cooking and enjoying. Another dessert option is risotto with apples. Next to it in the risotto series is risotto with banana.

Ingredients

2 servings

Rice (Arborio) 1 cup (180 g)
Hot water or vegetable stock 0.8 l
Strawberries 200 g
Sugar 2 tbsp (27 g)
Lemon juice 1–2 tsp
Heavy cream 50 ml
Onion 1
Butter 2 tbsp
Parmesan 2 tbsp (14 g)
Salt a pinch
Fresh mint for garnish

Step-by-step recipe

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Preparing the strawberries

Prepare the strawberries: wash the ripe berries, dry them a little, sort through them and remove the stems. Cut each berry into four pieces, or more if they are large. Set aside 1–2 berries for garnish.

How to cook strawberry risotto

Fry the onion in butter. Peel a small onion, preferably a young one, and chop it very finely. Fry it in a saucepan in butter until golden. It is even better to sweat it under a lid over low heat until the onion is soft and translucent.
Add the Italian rice and fry for 1–2 minutes, stirring, so that every grain is coated with a film of butter. Risotto varieties are preferable: Arborio, Carnaroli, Baldo or others.
Add the sugar, a pinch of salt and 1–2 tsp of lemon juice to the rice; you can also add white table wine. Stir and leave under a lid over the lowest heat until the rice has absorbed all the liquid.

Cook the rice, adding hot water or vegetable stock in small portions, a small ladle at a time. Add each next portion of liquid only after the rice has absorbed the previous one completely. It is best to cook over very low heat, stirring often, in an open saucepan. It takes about 0.8 l of liquid in all, and the rice is usually done in 18–20 minutes.
Since a dish with strawberries is, by and large, not a classic risotto, you can perfectly well make do with boiling water from a kettle.
When the rice is almost done, add the chopped strawberries. Almost immediately the strawberries turn into a purée and the risotto takes on an intense red color. Cook until the rice is done but the very center of each grain still has a barely noticeable firmness. The risotto should be creamy, not runny: if there is too much liquid, simmer for another minute or two without a lid, stirring.
At the very end, add the heavy cream and stir. Strictly speaking, cream is not added to risotto, but rice porridge with strawberries is much tastier with cream. If needed, add a little more sugar to taste. If you like, instead of cream you can add milk and a small piece of butter, just a little.

Serving

Ladle the berry risotto into plates and sprinkle with finely grated Parmesan. Garnish the dish with fresh strawberries and mint leaves.
Serve the risotto right away, while it is hot. If you like, you can add a little honey, but do not do it during cooking. Honey does not like heat.

Calories and macros

635 kcal

Serving ≈ 470 g

Protein10 g7% of kcal
Fat23 g33% of kcal
Carbs94 g61% of kcal

100 g137 kcalProtein 2.2 gFat 4.9 gCarbs 20.3 g

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

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