As Venice braced itself recently for another wedding, I had been thinking back to last September, when Adriana and Thom exchanged vows in the cavernous cool of the boathouse belonging to Burano’s rowing club. Following the ceremony, the double doors were opened wide, so friends and family could line the ramp all the way to the edge of the lagoon. There, standing majestically at the end of a green gondola, was Adriana’s childhood friend Giulia, a champion of voga Veneta, or Venetian rowing, ready to take the couple to the other side of the island for lunch.
While Giulia rowed Adriana and Thom around the island, the rest of us walked across it to Trattoria Da Romano, where Adriana’s family have celebrated for lifetimes, and it was completely given over to our euphoric wedding party. I am sure I would remember all seven courses (several of which involved more than one dish) even if I didn’t have the menu memento stuck to our fridge with a cat magnet. What I remember most vividly, though, is the fish risotto, because Adriana told me to get near enough the kitchen door to see how energetically the chefs beat it, and how soft and rippling the texture was.
It was a perfect example of risotto all’onda, which means “risotto with a wave”. It thickens during the passage from pan to plate, becoming dense and creamy and moving slowly in a sort-of ripple on the plate (I was really taken by the way the waiters tapped the plate to even out the rice).
Seeing both the beating and the serving made me realise that I still have much to learn when it comes to getting the consistency right. For now, I find it helpful to think of the consistency as being closer to creamy porridge than to rice: loose but not soupy. With this in mind, this week’s recipe is a novice risotto with courgettes, which is also helped by the addition of cream cheese.
Serve immediately with very cold white wine. And, for afters, and also inspired by Adriana and Thom, a mixture of lemon sorbet, vodka and prosecco, AKA sgroppino.
Risotto with courgettes, goat’s cheese and lemon
Serves 4
4 medium courgettes
1.6 litres vegetable broth
Olive oil
30g unsalted butter
2 shallots, peeled and finely diced
400g carnaroli rice
100g mild goat’s or cream cheese
30g parmesan, grated
Finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
Top and tail the courgettes. Grate two of them on the coarse side of a box grater, and cut the other two into thin slices with a mandoline or sharp knife. Pat the slices with kitchen towel, then rub with olive oil and cook on a griddle pan until tender and marked with lines. Cut the grilled courgettes into thin strips and keep warm.
Put the stock in a pan at the back of the stove and bring to a gentle simmer. In a heavy-based wide saucepan, warm two tablespoons of olive oil and 10g of the butter, then gently fry the shallots until soft. Add the grated courgettes and move them around for a minute, then add the rice and stir so it clatters against the sides of the pan for two minutes – it should be glossy and glassy.
Add a ladle of broth, stir until it’s absorbed, then repeat, adding broth and stirring over a low-medium heat that keeps the risotto barely simmering, for about 17 minutes, until the rice is plump and the consistency is soft and rippling – like a creamy porridge, but not soupy.
Take off the heat, beat in the butter, goat’s cheese or cream cheese and parmesan, then stir or, better still, jolt the pan so the risotto comes up and over in a wave that mixes the ingredients and also loosens starch.
Meanwhile, very quickly reheat the strips of courgette in a pan, then add the lemon zest. Divide the risotto between four plates, bash the sides of the plates so the risotto spreads, and top each serving with a little pile of grilled courgette strips.