Risotto With Bacon and Gorgonzola
By: Giancarlo Cairella
Published: Friday, December 3, 2010 - 5:41pm

Ingredients




1 pound Arborio or Carnaroli rice
10 ounces smoked Bacon, diced
4 ounces Gorgonzola cheese, diced or crumbled
1 glass dry white wine, room temperature
1 cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated
1/2 cup butter
1/2 onion, chopped
6 cups Chicken broth

Preparation

1 Heat chicken broth in a pot until almost boiling, then reduce heat to simmer 2 Dice bacon strips and cook for 10 minutes in a skillet over medium/high heat 3 When bacon is cooked, drain and set aside. Discard grease. 4 Melt 1/4 cup of butter into a 6-quart stock pot until it starts foaming. 5 When butter is hot, add chopped onion and cook for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onion is golden. 6 Add rice and stir constantly. It should 'toast' for about one minute. 7 Add wine to rice and continue to stir well until fully absorbed, for about one minute or two. 8 Continue to stir constantly, or rice will burn. When rice is getting dry/too sticky, add one ladle of hot broth and keep stirring until it's mostly absorbed. Repeat, stirring constantly and adding broth for about 12/13 minutes. Rice should absorb the broth and gain volume. 9 Add Gorgonzola, stir until fully melted. 10 Stir in in bacon. 11 Rice will be ready when 'al dente' (fully cooked but still firm); Arborio rice is usually read in 18/20 minutes; Carnaroli in 16/18 minutes. 12 Remove from heat, add remaing 1/4 cup of butter and 1/2 cup of grated Parmigiano and stir well for a nice creamy texture. 13 Let it sit for another minute, then serve, sprinkling the rest of the grated Parmigiano cheese