Every Monday night, Bon Appétit editor in chief Adam Rapoport gives us a peek inside his brain by taking over our newsletter. He shares recipes he's been cooking, restaurants he's been eating at, and more. It gets better: If you sign up for our newsletter, you'll get this letter before everyone else.
Whenever my wife and I invite friends over, Simone almost always asks, “Can we make risotto?” And, almost always, my stock answer has been “No—it’s too much of a pain.”
Well, turns out, as with most disputes in the RapoBuck household, I was wrong. Yes, most risotto recipes do require your mostly undivided attention (a ladle of stock...stir, stir, stir...another ladle of stock...). But if you’ve got a confident co-pilot, you can divide and conquer the cooking tasks and stir up creamy, tender risotto and the rest of your menu right on time.
This past New Year’s, our friend Caitlin showed up with a mess of beautiful wild mushrooms and riffed on Carla Music’s no-fail mushroom risotto. Meanwhile, our friend Michael roasted a mustard-and-herb-coated rack of lamb. An indulgent, and absolutely perfect pairing.
And then, a few nights ago, when we had our friends Krissy and Chloe over, Simone and I basically cut our stove top in half. With the left two burners, she heated chicken stock on one, while constructing a buttery, cheese-free lemon risotto on the other. Standing elbow to elbow, I pan roasted two, thick-cut Berkshire pork chops, basting them with butter and garlic and thyme, similar to what Molly does on Bon App’s YouTube channel.
Start to finish, we both had our respective dishes ready to go in about 20 minutes (the time it takes for the rice to release its creamy starchiness while retaining just a bit of bite.) I carved up the chops, Simone brought the risotto pot straight to table, and Chloe set out a big, green salad to cut through all that richness. Let’s just say there were no leftovers.
So, yes, from now on, as long as I have a partner at the stove, my stock answer to what we’re making tonight is risotto.
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