Meyer lemons with a few basil leaves perfume the rice. Vibrant extra-virgin olive oil, instead of butter, adds the finishing touch to this lemon risotto. You’ll notice that there’s no chicken stock in this recipe—cooking the rice with water instead allows the lemon flavor to really shine through.
Recipe information
Yield
Serves 4
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Zest the lemons and juice them into a cup. Finely grate the parmigiano; you will have about 2 handfuls. Bring the water to a simmer in a medium pot. Coat a wide, heavy saucepan with oil (about 2 tablespoons) and warm 3 basil leaves in it over medium heat until fragrant, about 1 minute. Remove the basil leaves and discard them. Add the shallots to the pan, cook them until soft, 2 to 3 minutes, then add the rice. Using a wooden spoon, stir constantly until the grains of rice are glossy and well coated, about 2 minutes. Raise the heat to high and pour in the wine, stirring until evaporated.
Step 2
Add 2 teaspoons salt to the pot of water. One ladleful at a time, add hot water to the rice, and stir until it’s completely absorbed. Continue adding hot water gradually, only adding more when the rice is ready to absorb it; you will know it’s ready when the bubbling increases and the spoon leaves a slow trail in the rice. Stir after each addition of water and cook until the rice is loose and creamy, and when you bite into a grain of rice it’s barely tender, 18 to 20 minutes (you might have about ½ cup of water left).
Step 3
To finish, stir in the lemon zest and juice. Pour in a stream of olive oil (about 2 tablespoons), stirring the risotto vigorously at the same time. Stir in the parmigiano; add salt if needed. Tear 2 basil leaves in half and stir them into the risotto. Grind pepper over each serving, and drizzle with olive oil.
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Reviews (1)
Back to TopI definitely changed quite a few things (added garlic, ground beef, rosemary and bouillon) but it was so delicious!! Will definitely make again and continue playing around with it.
Anonymous
6/16/2023
I have made this before and if using plain water is too controversial, I would use half water/half broth, I do that a lot in much of my cooking, especially if the broth has high sodium content. I am of the view that plain water is blah and I wouldn't use plain water. Using half and half water/broth seems like a good compromise for flavorful risotto. This is a good side dish for a seafood/fish dinner.
Anonymous
Long Is., NY
2/9/2023
Good recipe! Made it with Yuzu (lucky to have a tree) and it was really good. Next time I think I will add a bunch of thinly-sliced citrus in with the Shallots to develop flavors a little more.I hope the combination of raw and cooked (even caramelized?) peel will add more to the dish. Definately added to the list of Risottos to make often!
Glenn
California
12/14/2022
As usual I tweaked the recipe. I used chicken broth rather than water. (Vegetable stock would have also been better than water!) Meyer lemons are my favorite but could not locate this time of year in the PNW. So I used regular lemons. I made this as a side dish to a whole herb roasted chicken. The serving size indicated four but no way could it serve four as a main dish. Since this was a side for herb chicken I substituted fresh thyme for the basil. The basil absolutely would have been wonderful; just didn’t work well with what I served the risotto with for this dinner. I also added sautéed asparagus cooked in butter, splash of wine, lemon zest and a squeeze of lemon juice. This was added to the risotto right before I added the cheese. I would absolutely cook this again with my tweaks and will try with the basil. However, I would NEVER cook risotto in water!
ElleMac
Normandy Park, WA
10/19/2022
Really liked this! I think I might put seafood on top next time.
Anonymous
5/21/2023
Best Risotto recipe.
Taral
Bengaluru
10/21/2022
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