Give friends, family the gift of time and serve up risotto

You know, I like instant ramen noodles as much as the next guy, when I'm in a pinch. But there are some things that just kind of offend me when they show up in the grocery store in a fancy looking box — one that promises instant results for little to no effort. Risotto is one of those.

I can't say I'm really surprised that instant risotto hit supermarket shelves. It's creamy and cheesy. It has a broad and basic appeal that's increasingly crept into American consciousness over the last 20 years. Boxed risotto is just Rice-a-Roni: the San Francisco cheat. With a new paint job and a few more dollars added to the price tag.

Risotto isn't a classic collection of ingredients that can be stuffed in a box. It's a process. Not a difficult one, but it does require some time and attention. Instant risotto in a box actually gets my blood boiling. OK, maybe not quite boiling. Let's say a low simmer. Even in restaurants, they have to take shortcuts, or interrupt the process part of the way through.

The basic idea of risotto is to add wine and broth to the rice, in small increments, as it cooks. As the rice cooks, the liquids gets absorbed and evaporate. They concentrate their flavors. This causes some of the rice starches to bind with the broth, so that it makes it's own sauce as you cook it. Properly made risotto requires the cook to stand by the saucepan, constantly stirring it for 15 to 20 minutes.

If you just cook rice with all the liquids right up front, then add some sauce, ingredients and cheese at the end, then you don't have risotto. You have cheesy rice. Not the same thing. I like cheesy rice, but I'd never call it risotto. That’s a hard no on that. If your risotto recipe wants you to bake it in the oven or add all the liquids at once, I'd recommend looking for a different recipe.

Another aspect of making risotto is the layers of flavor in the rice grains. Because we are slowly adding liquids and oils to the grains, they absorb flavors at a different rate and depth. The things we add first are going to have a deep undercurrent of flavor in the aftertaste.

Consider it opposite day. What we add at the end is going to be the first flavor we get, and not go very deep. The final touches won't be part of the aftertaste. They'll be a burst of flavor when we first taste it, fading quickly to reveal more depth of flavor afterward. Giving us an intentional series of flavors that we would never get if we just tossed everything in a crock pot.

That sequence of flavors really gets at the heart of the difference between classic French cooking and pan-Italian attitudes. With French cooking, you are taking many flavors and combining them into one big flavor. There are a lot of elements happening in that flavor, and they all linger together so you have time to find and understand the different elements. Italian traditions are meant to create a story, where individual elements pop in and out as you move through the story.

If you decorate a room, with a consistent theme, there are only subtle differences to enjoy. That's the French aspiration to composing a meal. Even your drink should complement the character of the room and blend into the surroundings.

But if you want to make a haunted house, you try to surprise the visitors. Twists and turns, with wildly different colors and sounds as you walk through it. Loud things pop out at you and then disappear. This is an Italian attitude toward food. The ingredients tend to be cut larger, and added at different times. To give a sort of fireworks display of different things happening. Pop! Pop! Pop!

Italian wines tend to support this, having big bold flavors that go through big changes before they fade away. A well made risotto does this. It's a series of episodes that each have their own plot. Then hit the reset button with a sip of a big aggressive wine. Next bite: different condimenti, same comforting aftertaste, the blast of wine. Rinse and repeat. Risotto is the theme song at the beginning of each episode.

Risotto is considered a pasta course in Italy. Like a wheat pasta, risotto wants to be cooked “al dente,” meaning “to the tooth.” It should have a soft and creamy surface, with a little bit of a solid chunk in the center.

The best rices for risotto are short and fat with a kind of oval shape. Carnaroli, Arborio and Vialone Nano, in order from the largest to smallest. Carnaroli is my favorite, but it takes a bit longer to cook and can be difficult to source. Sushi rice works in a pinch. That fat oval shape lets the surface cook into the sauce before you loose the “tooth” in the middle.

What are condimenti? Good question. Condimenti are everything you add to the risotto that isn’t the risotto. If you're having mac and cheese with franks, then franks would be the condimenti that accompanies the mac and cheese. Risotto is the impressive part of the dish, the condimenti are the fun bursts of random flavor that go along with it. Condiments.

Condimenti is the classic aspect of an Italian dish where you get to let the seasons and your current mood really take center stage and sing. You can and should put absolutely anything you feel like into the dish at this point. It's karaoke in the kitchen. Risotto is the song without the lyrics. Condimenti is your interpretation of the song.

Since it's a backward day dish, you always want to prepare the condimenti first. We add it at the end, so you want it ready to add in at just the right moment when the pasta hits al dente.

And while we're on opposite day, one thing I'd like to mention is that the new prepackaged bone broth trend is pretty great. The stuff actually tastes like real broth. I'd normally never recommend using prepackaged broth for risotto. No way. It tends to be too salty, and as the broth cooks in and evaporates, it concentrates the salt in a really lousy way. But those bone broths out there are actually pretty good. Bones have a lot of gelatin in them, which help add to the stickiness and deep flavor of the rice.

Quick fun fact: saffron is a classic ingredient in Milanese risotto, one of the most popular classic versions of the dish. That northern valley of Italy was where all the money was during the European Renaissance. They used to eat gold dust in their food to show off how rich they were. Yep, that really happened. Eventually they switched to saffron to get that nice gold color. As a result, saffron became more expensive than gold, and it was just another cool way to show off. It adds a really nice yellow color to food, but also has a solid subtle flavor. It's kind of like a bass line in a song. You aren't really focusing on it all that often, but man, it would sound real weird without it.

Saffron still is expensive, though not nearly as much as gold. It can be very hard to find. I'd try an Indian market, since it's also featured a lot in Indian foods. Taj Mahal here in Cedar Rapids has it. It's not with the other spices, but up by the cash register, since it's a small and expensive item.

The last thing I'd like to mention is that risotto is a gift of time to share with other people. Yes, you do want to stand next to it, stirring it gently but constantly. It doesn't take much attention during the cooking process though, so it's a fine time to have a glass of wine with your friends and family while it's cooking. That's what the antipasto is for, to give them something to nibble on while you're stirring the pot.

While eating, be sure to remind people that this is something special that they could never have in a restaurant. No restaurant is going to dedicate one cook to focusing on risotto, just for you, for 20 minutes. This is a private and special thing to share at home. The gift of time.

Chef Tibbs, also known as Joshua “Tibbs” Tibbetts, is a Cedar Rapids native who has been a professional chef for more than 30 years.

2 cups cooked food, whatever you have or want to throw in there. I used chicken thighs, peas, Parmesan cheese, Italian parsley and pancetta (bay and juniper bacon). Dice up and cook your ingredients to your liking, then keep them nearby. You want them cooked and ready to go when the rice is done.

1 medium yellow onion, diced small

1 cup Arborio rice (or Carnaroli, Vialone Nano, or Sushi rice)

2 to 3 cups bone broth warmed, homemade preferred

A nice big spoon or heatproof rubber/silicone spatula

15 to 20 minutes of focused attention (conversation optional)

Some clean spoons nearby, for tasting

Warm your broth. Are the condimenti ready to go? Good. Did you set the table and have plates ready? You want to take care of all that before you start cooking the rice.

Put the onions and olive oil in the saucepan on the range over medium heat. Stir them occasionally until the onions start to turn translucent. Add the rice, and continue to stir. After a minute or so, the oil will absorb into the surface of the rice grains, but the center will still be a hard white color. It should look like an eye with a pupil.

Add the half cup of wine. This is where we need to start paying more attention. Stir gently, but more or less continuously. Keep an eye on how soggy the mixture is. When you drag your spatula across the bottom of the pot, notice how much liquid is left in the wake.

I always think of Moses parting the Red Sea at this stage. When the bottom surface looks fairly dry, that means it's time to let the waters come crashing back in.

Add a half cup of broth and stir it in, just like you did with the wine. Shoot for the Moses target again. It's not really that hard, is it? You just can't walk away from it, you have to keep your attention mostly focused on the rice and the relative wetness.

When you get to your fourth dose of liquids, taste a couple grains of rice. If it's still crunchy, add another half cup of broth and let it go another round. Really try to focus on the texture of the rice now. You want a slight firmness in the middle. Not crunchy, but not soggy like oatmeal either. Shoot for something that has a little body. That's the tooth, the al dente.

Once you've hit your desired firmness, add the condimenti and herbs. Stir them in then add the butter. It should be pretty sticky at this point. If you lift a spoonful and turn it sideways, it should stick to the spoon. Remember, it's the rice starch and gelatin of the bone stock holding it together. Give a shout out to your guests that it will be ready soon.

It might need salt at this point. If you are using prepackaged bone broth, it has a little sodium in it that concentrates as you evaporate it into the rice, so it might not. Can you taste it on the front of your tongue, the sides, the back? Once you can taste it in the back, in your whole mouth, then you have enough salt.

Divide it up onto the plates. Grate (or sprinkle) the cheese on top and serve immediately. Remember, the entire point of this technique is to achieve a texture and layer of flavors. If it sits for a while before cooking, the grains will go soggy and the flavors will start to marry together. Waste no more time and dig in!

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