Bottura's Risotto "Cacio e Pepe"

This outstanding risotto by chef Massimo Bottura is as indulgent as it is unconventional; it had me giggling it was so good.

It was developed to use a lot of Parmesan which might have gone to waste after the 2012 earthquake that devastated the Emilia-Romagna region of of Italy.  The "cacio e pepe" refers to Parmesan cheese and pepper from the classic Roman dish.  In this recipe, Parmesan is separated to form an enriched water which is used to cook the risotto rice. Unfortunately, when first published, various versions had obvious errors with crazy quantities of Parmesan so it was difficult to determine what was the correct ratio of cheese to water.

The first I tried was 1500g parmesan to 4L water = 1500g/4000g = 37.5% cheese and was mind-blowing but a rather expensive at that ratio. This one from NPR "corrected" 0.5 Lb and 4 Qt water is 6%, but I found it a bit unspirited. One published in 2015 by Bottura himself is 1Kg/2Kg (50%) which seems insane... insanely good I'm sure, but also insanely expensive. I'm hoping to circle in on a ratio which is richly rewarding while still affordable. Here are some other recipes, probably all derived from the original, with ratios between 37% and 60% cheese to water by weight:

• NPR Corrected: 0.5 Lb / 4 US Qt = 227g / 3785 g = 6%
• Saveur (converted to metric): 0.9Kg/1.5L = 60%
• Foodcookture: 992g/2.67L = 37%
• Dissapore: 1.5Kg/4L = 37%
• Menta & Rozmarin: 500g/1Kg = 50%

I make Risotto following Marcella Hazan's recipes, and it's pretty standard: about 2.5 cups liquid to 1 cup rice feeds two as a main course generously; I usually end up adding a bit more liquid, so going to bump this up to 3C liquid. I expect this dish will be a bit rich to have a heaping mound of cheesy risotto as the only thing on the menu, so I'll cut it in half, but preserve the 3:1C ratio, and convert to weight-based metric measurements for sanity.  1 C Arborio rice = 187g, 3 C water is 710 ml, so the ratio is 26%. Ratios of rice to water in the other recipes are all over the map, 12 to 40%; I suspect some horribly bad conversions from metric to imperial and then cups and different ounces:

• NPR: 12% rice:water
• Saveur: 1:3C rice:water = 187/710g = 26%
• Foodcookture: 12.5% rice:water
• Dissapore: 12.5%
• Menta: 40%

So we'll go with 26% rice:water then calculate the weight of the cheese at 37% based on the weight of the water to arrive at the final amounts. Reducing by half for 2 starter portions: 355g water, 37% = 131g cheese, and 26% = 92g rice. Whew!

355 g Water

131 g Parmesan cheese, grated fine

 92 g Risotto Rice: Arborio, Carnaroli, Vialone Nano, etc

 15 ml Olive Oil

  9 g Pepper mix: Black, Szechuan, etc, ground coarse (add in 3 batches)

Heat Water to 80-90C (do not go over 90C) and add grated Parmesan until threads form at the bottom; this took about 5 minutes with cheese grated very finely on a rotary grater. Remove pan and let cool to room temperature. Repeat. Cover and cool 8 hours or overnight in the fridge.

Separate the cream from the top and reserve; a scum skimmer works well.

Sieve the liquid Parmesan Water and reserve.

Pull out the solid part and let dry and reserve: you can grate and fry this in a teflon pan or cook in microwave a few seconds to make a frico garnish.

Heat the Parmesan Water in a pot; add 3g of the Pepper.

Sauté 3g of the Pepper mix in the Olive Oil until fragrant.

Add the Risotto and toast until warm.

Add some of the Parmesan Water, stir and cook until mostly reserved;

repeat until the liquid is used and the Rice is toothsome, with a slight bite.

Add the Parmesan Cream and stir in.
You may need to add more water to get the texture right: I had to add 180ml; just make sure you preheat it.

Plate and dust with the remaining 3g of Pepper.

Top with "sails" of a frico made with the Parmesan solids.

Cannelloni of Chicken Mousse (2007)

Based on Roberto Donna's class at Galileo 2003-02-09. In class this was "cannelloni of chicken and duck liver mousse with fava beans in a sauce of chanterelle mushrooms".  I made this several times to get the flavor (light and dark meat and liver) and texture right (ice, cream, egg). I've stuffed it into pasta colored with chlorophyll, steamed to cook, and topped with a little spicy red sauce. Ten ounces of pasta made 14 thin (Atlas #7) 5x6 inch cannelloni sheets. I've also filled Chard leaves, as below.  And I've made a similar filling with salmon: 12 ounce Salmon, 3 Egg White, 3 ounce Cream.

Serves 4

8    ounce  Chicken white meat, chilled

8    ounce  Chicken dark meat, chilled

4    ounce  Chicken Liver, chilled

4     Egg Whites (6 ounces by weight)

2    tsp    Salt

1    tsp    Black Pepper, ground fine

3/8  cup    Cream (3 fluid ounce)

Process Chicken meat; you might want to add an ice cube or two to keep it cool and loosen it a bit but that will soften the texture so you might have to cut back on the cream later.

While processing, add Egg Whites, Salt, Pepper and process.

And Liver and continue processing until very smooth.

Add Cream or process, but do not overwork or you'll create butter. 

The final texture should be almost like a pudding, it will firm up on cooking.

For Pasta:

2 Cup Durum Flour, 2 Tbs Chlorophyll, 2-3 whole Eggs, 1 Tbs Milk.

Roll out into sheets you can see your hand through (thinnest setting on my on

my Atlas, #7).  Mine are 5-6" wide and I cut the sheets into 5x6" rectangles.

Drop each sheet into salted boiling water about 30 seconds; it will swell in

all dimensions.  Remove with a spider and drop in ice water to stop the

cooking; remove and drain both sides on dish towel.

Pipe the chicken filling near long edge of each sheet and roll the sheet along the shorter dimension.

Place parchment on the bottom of the steamer to prevent sticking, steam until the chicken and pasta/chard is cooked, 10 minutes.

For Chard wrappers:

We had giant leaves in the garden and had to blanch them so they wouldn't crack when rolling; shocking in ice water was not needed.

Dollop about 2 Tbs filling near one end, spread over 2/3 of the length of the leaves and roll jelly-roll style; this gives a better texture -- a crunchy lightness -- than rolling like the cannelloni pasta above.

Don't wrap too tight as the filling will expand during cooking.

Place a raw chard leaf on the bottom of the steamer to prevent sticking,  steam until the chicken and pasta/chard is cooked, 10 minutes.

This is almost finger food but the veins in were a bit too chewy to bite through cleanly.

What other leaves work? cabbage seems good, maybe collards; spinach would be too much work, basil out of the question.

Green Chlorophyll Pasta (2004)

Extract chlrophyll using Thomas Keller's technique documented elsewhere: grind, soak, strain off course material, simmer to separate, filter for chlorophyll; takes 2 days.

The Chlorophyll keeps the pasta green after boiling.

The Eggs give it elasticity, critical for stuffed pasta.

The Milk, per Marcella Hazan, helps it seal for stuffed pasta; it also seems to make it a bit more tender.

We should really be weighing the Flour and Eggs...

3 Tbs Chlorophyll

2 C Flour, durum (hard), fine texture

3 Eggs

1 tsp Salt

1 Tbs Milk

Combine ingredients in bowl of stand mixer.

Knead with dough hook until it begins to come together.

Finish kneading by hand on counter, adjusting texture with additional water or flour as needed.

Wrap in cling film and refrigerate overnight, or freeze for future use (flatten out so it thaws quicker).

Knead and form in hand-crank pasta machine.

For stuffed pasta, roll until you can see your hand through it;

On my old Atlas, this is the thinnest setting (#7)

though I think it used to get thinner -- it may be out of adjustment.

Chlorophyll Extraction for Green Pasta and Sauces (2004)

I did this back in September 2004 but wanted to document it here, it worked really well. The different greens had different extraction rates and flavors: basil tasted the best but was most expensive, chard was cheap and easy to extract. See another recipe here for using the chlorophyll to make green pasta which retains its flavor when cooked.

This extraction technique is from Thomas Keller's The French Laundry Cookbook. Keller uses two parts spinach and one part each parsley and watercress and uses it in herb sauces and cream sauces.

Note: this takes two days to make.

Below are various yields for different Greens, deveined or destemmed.

Weights are after washing, still a bit dripping wet.

The Chard had the best yield and was easiest to extract.

The Basil chlorophyll had a surprising pepper taste, with some anise.

Greens      Source  Pulp   Chloro   Yield  Notes

Swiss Chard 12 oz   2 C    5oz=9Tb  52%    Good separation, fast filtering

Sorrel      1 Lb   2 C    1oz=3Tb   6%    Fine grain difficult to tell separation;

                                           filtering is very slow

Basil      6 oz   5 floz 1oz=3Tb  17%    Brown run-off water

Grind greens in a meat grinder (Kitchenaid mixer attachment with fine cutter).

Add at least four times as much water as ground greens by volume.

Let soak in refrigerator overnight.

Strain through medium mesh sieve, squeezing out as much liquid as possible,

allowing chlorophyll-laden water to pass through into pan (a shiny rather than dark pan is easier to see).

Bring to simmer, stirring constantly; watch for chlorophyll to precipitate out of solution.

When fully separated, shock by adding just enough ice to cool it down, but not so many there are floating ice cubes in the pan.

Strain through coffee filter set inside a colander; this may take overnight, so you can set it up in the fridge.

What's left on the filter is pure chlorophyll which can be scraped off and saved tightly covered in the freezer.

For Pasta, we use 3 Tbs chlorophyll to 2 C fine durum Flour, 3 Eggs, 1 Tbs milk.

Next time... In 2023, I no longer have a meat grinder; would whizzing the greens with some of the water in a food processor or blender work? I expect it would have the same effect of breaking the leaves to open up the cells.

Hot and Sour Soup

Our college friends, Jerry and Cindi, taught this to us in 1982.

2 large Dried Black Mushrooms
6 Tree Ear Mushrooms
4 Dried Tiger Lilly Stems
1 Tbs Vegetable Oil
1/2 Cup Pork, finely shredded (about 1/4 pound)
1 Tbs Light Soy Sauce
? ? Bok Choy, sliced
1/2 Cup Shredded Bamboo Shoots
5 Cup Chicken Broth
2-3 Tbs Red Wine Vinegar
1 Tbs Dark Soy Sauce
2 Tbs Cornstarch
3 Tbs Water
1 1/2 pad Tofu, firm
2 whole Eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp Sesame Oil
1-2 tsp White Pepper
2 tsp Scallions with green part
Fresh Coriander, chopped for garnish
2 Tbs Hot Bean Paste (to taste)

Soak Mushrooms, Tree Ears, Tiger Lilly Stems in hot or boiling water and let stand 15-30 minutes to rehydrate; drain.

Discard stems of Mushrooms and hard part of Tree Ears, cut into thin slices

Stir Pork in hot Oil and add Light Soy Sauce along with Mushrooms, Tree Ears, Tiger Lilly Stems, Bamboo Shoots.

Add Bok Choy.

Stir 1 minute and add Chicken Broth and Salt.

Stir in Vinegar and Dark Soy. 

Add Scallions.

Mix Cornstarch and Water then stir into soup to thicken.

When thickened, add Tofu.

Bring to boil and turn off heat

Add Sesame Oil, Pepper, Bean Paste and stir.

While stirring, add beaten Eggs.

Sprinkle with Coriander.