More Risotto: 100 New Recipes for the Classic Rice Dish of Northern Italy

I bought and heavily (!!! see below) used this cookbook soon after it first came out in the late 1980s. It was a breakthrough cookbook for its time, and hugely popular, and is still a wonderful resource that I can recommend today almost without hesitation. In the late 1980s, I first started seeing risotto offered frequently in Mediterranean or even New American yuppie restaurants in the SF Bay Area when I visited on business--but not yet readily in fine restaurants in Seattle, for instance. Risotto was a clear trend for foodies, but hadn't yet hit mainstream nationally. So it was with impeccable timing that Barrett and Wasserman released "Risotto" in 1987. I caught the bug early and hard. After I got this cookbok--in one my inspired food specialty frenzies--I wanted to make everything risotto. It was the perfect, versatile one-bowl (though usually 2-3 pots) meal that could fit any flavor or fancy, a base for any vegetables, seafood, meat, fruit, or herbs you wanted to cook with that day. I literally cooked risotto two or three times a week for 8 months, from fall harvest through a Seattle winter and into springtime baby vegetables. And I used this cookbook for all of it. This cookbook "Risotto" had many virtures. First, it is an exceptionally clear introduction to risotto: its history, varieties of rice, geography, how it is cooked and used, etc. Second, as other reviews state (and you can see in the Search-Inside-The-Book table of contents), it covers many kinds of risotto and has plenty of recipes: cheese, vegetable, meat, fish, fruit, liqueur, leftover. But the strongest (and non-obvious) feature of this cookbook is how it makes use of its Basic Recipe. Up front, with tips and tools and techniques, it describes a canonical recipe for making risotto: the broth, the oil/butter and minced onion and rice, the first stir of liquid, the stirring and adding broth, the sauteed "soffrito" ingredients, and the final additions of cheese, broth, and sometimes cream to stir in. The cookbook gives ingredient amounts for cooking the basic recipe for different size dinners, with a few additional tips for making more or less than the canonical (serves 4) recipe. In the rest of the book, recipes all can then say, for instance: Start with the basic recipe, but this time we're going to add the chopped spinach after 10 minutes of stirring in step 3; or Once the rice is coated in the oil, stir in 1/2 cup of white wine (instead of broth); or In the last step, omit the cheese and broth and use 1/2 cup of cream. And of course the soffrito, the usually-sauteed ingredients mixed in, were different for every one. I usually resist a standardized recipe, feeling like a straitjacket. But this had the opposite effect. Having a single Basic Recipe was a great way to build confidence and proficiency with a new way of cooking. And building 100 recipes off of it--including restrained, classic Italian risottos, together with more creative or adventurous combinations--made

this book was one of our favorite wedding gifts - absolutely great recipes - try the merlot one w/ tenderloin!

There are so many cook books that you buy and only find a few recipes that are exciting. This book offers a multitude of recipies that are exceptional and always turn out. Whatever you are in the mood for beef, poultry, or seafood, this book has it.

Great book for anyone who wants to excell at making risotto. I have tried many recipes and they all turned great. What a find for people who, like me, find risottos to be one of the great dishes ever!

I received this book as a gift and am quite pleased. An excellent choice for those who enjoy, but might be bored with plain risotto. Creative, easy to follow recipes with great results. Well organized book. Includes easy cooking tips, broth recipes and risotto by chapter (vegetable, seafood, low-fat, etc.), no photos. Again, an excellent choice.