A Tale of Two Risottos: Simple Risotto and Orzo, Risotto Style

The first time I make a recipe, I try to keep it simple. This way I can get a handle on the basics. That’s the idea, anyway. It doesn’t always work, like when I found myself making Bittman’s Simple Risotto this week and adding shiitake mushrooms, chunks of broiled chicken breasts and a whole bunch of chives. It turned out pretty good–the rice wasn’t perfect, but it was far from a failure. The combination of creamy rice, homemade stock, wine, cheese, good olive oil, chicken, mushrooms and chives is hard to mess up, and it’s a nice hearty dinner.

It’s a bit of a chore though, slowly adding all of that stock and then stirring it nearly constantly for half an hour. Risotto enthusiasts will tell you this isn’t true, that it’s not as hard as it seems. And that’s true, to a point. But sometimes you really are too lazy, and that’s when Bittman’s Orzo, Risotto Style comes in. It’s the same idea, but by switching out orzo, the rice shaped pasta, for the short grain rice, you reduce the cooking time by quite a bit and end up with something quite satisfying. If I’d thrown some chives on this one, it would have looked just as good as the “real” risotto.

Maybe not as special as risotto, but pretty damn good.