Recipe N°82 ARTUSI Riso coi Gamberi (Shrimps Risotto)

Riso coi Gamberi (Italian for Shrimps Risotto) is a very requested dish in our private dinners in Tuscany.

If you’d like tasting real Italian food comfortably sit at the table of your holiday home in Tuscany, it’s worth calling a private chef as one of “Cuoche in Vacanza”.

If you’re nowadays in your country (most of our customers come from: USA, Australia, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Denmark…) and holidays are still faraway… try to replicate this recipe and you surely will not regret it: it’s a fantastic way to taste “Italian Shrimps Risotto”.

From the book of Pellegrino Artusi (the greater recipes and food stories writer from Tuscany, who lived at the end of 1.800):

“It is related that a shrimp’s mum blaming one day her daughter, said to her: – My God, how do you go crooked! Can you not walk straight?! –
And you, mother, how do you walk? – said the daughter – Can I go straight when here, all I see is crooked? –
The daughter was right. “

Method making Shrimps Risotto (following Artusi).

It has been obviously tested by me and my family and I can guarantee about success!

First of all take about 300 grams of shrimp will be enough for 700 grams of rice and serve for eight people. Finely chop half an onion, three cloves of garlic, carrot, celery and parsley and put on the fire with EVO oil.
Because I think that garlic, in this case, it is necessary to correct the sweet taste of shrimp.
When the garlic begins to brown pour in the shrimps and season with salt and pepper. Stir often and when all have become red, wet with sauce or tomato paste and a little later pour a lot of hot water that is enough for the rice.
So boil not so much, because shrimps cook quickly,
then remove and drain them dry and take a fourth part of them, choosing the biggest; peel and set asidethis fourth.
Crush the others in a mortar, pass through a sieve and stir the pulp passed to the broth where they were cooked.
Put on the heat a bit of butter in a saucepan and pour in the rice, stir constantly, and when the rice has taken the luster of butter, pour in the hot stock a little at a time;
when it’s more than half cooking time, add the whole shrimps, already peeled, and give them a bit of “grace”, before serving, with a handful of parmesan cheese. If, when you make this risotto, you have meat broth, use it because it will succeed with more nutricious and more delicate.

As you can see from this picture I added also other kinds of crustaceans: they are called, in Tuscany, “cicale” and maybe you call them mantis shrimp.

I made this shrimps risotto with so much love and it came out really delicious.
Not always, but sometimes, in addition to the ingredients, that are the “must” during this “cooking” period, the way of preparation is very important too.
This is the first lesson that I learnt from the great king, P. Artusi…I don’t think it’s a little one.
Try cooking guys! And let me know…xxx