Cooking with wine-Risotto al Amarone

Cooking with wine can be complicated, but as many say, the wine you use for cooking should be a wine you are glad to drink.

Ingredients for 4 pers.: 375 ml Amarone, 50 gr shallots, olive oil, 50 gr butter, 320 gr rice for risotto, 1L vegetable stock, 60 gr Parmigiano or Grana Padano.

For the risotto al Amarone, you should first let the wine reduce to one third.

Cook 50 gr of shallots in a bit of butter. Add the rice and stir for a few minutes till it gets some color. Add a little salt and pepper. Then add the reduction of Amarone. When the wine is integrated start adding the stock little by little. It takes 15-18 min. Then add the rest of butter and the cheese.

Served with Amarone. We enjoyed it with great company and with an Amarone di Valpolicella 2012 from Brigaldara.

Aromatic with a intense hints of spices (clove) and of cooked red/blue fruit (plum).

Amarone is a unpredicted recioto that as J. Robinson says in O.Companion of Wine, it escaped to dryness. Typical grapes used are among others Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella. The moment for selecting the grapes and the drying process are critical for the production of Amarone.

Photo credits: https://www.instagram.com/artemisafog.photography/?hl=en