Risotto with white grape and walnut cheese
( Risotto all'uva bianca )

White grape risotto How-To

Preparation and cooking

• - Prepare vegetable broth to cook risotto.
  Keep it boiling while cooking risotto.
• - Put olive oil and rice in a large saucepan.
• - Fry slightly for a couple of minutes, stirring often, until rice looks milky.
• - Add wine and simmer until absorbed, stirring now and then.
• - At this point add 2 ladlefuls of vegetable broth and simmer until absorbed, stirring now and then.
  Continue adding broth, ladle by ladle, until your rice is tender.
• - Meanwhile wash fresh grapes you've chosen and pat dry with absorbent kitchen paper.
  Remove their berries from the stalk.
  Cut every berry lengthways and pick out its seeds, using the tip of a small knife.
• - Add berries 10 minutes before the end of cooking and 5 minutes later cheese, cubed, and chives.
• - Turn up the heat in the last minutes to reduce cooking juice, if necessary.
• - Taste to determine if your risotto dish needs added salt. 

Just before serving

• - Turn off the stove and wait for 5 minutes before serving.

Note

Tips

• - Generally I prepare vegetable broth to cook my risotto by boiling a carrot, an onion and a stalk of celery in salted water. Then I strain it. You get a tasty but genuine risotto. I prefer it to broth cubes ;))
• - You'll have a tastier risotto using fresh chives instead of dried one.
• - If you love healthy cooking use long-grain, brown rice and organic grape for this risotto recipe. Besides remember to use extra virgin olive oil. It is a real Mediterranean diet recipe with these last tips.
• - Risotto with white grape and walnut cheese should be prepared at the last minute.
  If you have guests organize yourself so that you can have the following ingredients ready to use: the pan with the oil, hot broth, weighed rice, cleaned and cut grapes and cheese cut into small pieces.
  Thus you do not abandon them for the entire period of cooking.
  My tip is to cook risotto while all are enjoying aperitif.
• - I suggest you calculate the doses very well because you can't reheat this kind of risotto dish.
• - This risotto recipe is a vegetarian main dish but if you substitute walnut cheese with tofu and walnut kernels it is a vegan recipe too.
• - Remember to serve your risotto in flat plates in your formal dinner parties.

Menu planning

• - Grape risotto is a tasty but refined main dish, a special recipe in a celebration menu, Italian-style too.
  But it can also be a recycle dish. Do you have a bunch of grape too ripe? a piece of walnut cheese left? any walnut kernels? This recipe is for you!
• - The doses you've read above are perfect for a family menu for example your Sunday lunch. It serves three people. But remember: it's one-plate meal ;))
  If you prepare grape-and-cheese risotto for a complete menu, from starter to dessert, it serves more people (up to six).
• - Here a menu idea, Italian-style with this grape risotto. It's a menu full of fall flavors. You'll find the links in the next paragraph.
  Starter: assorted crostini
  First course: white grape risotto
  Second course: roast turkey breast roll
  Dessert: castagnaccio (chestnut cake) or apple tart

Useful links for this recipe

• - Consult our directory about crostini to look for your favorite recipe.
• - Instead, here are the suggested recipes: roast turkey breast roll, castagnaccio, apple tart
• - Interested in other grape recipes?

Healthy eating

• - Grape-and-cheese risotto is a dish made with different ingredients and so it can be a tasty one-plate meal for your family lunch as you can see reading its nutrition facts. Complete your menu with seasonal raw vegetables if you're still hungry. Chicory, fennel or the last bell peppers are perfect to munch on. You can also choose boiled or grilled vegetable seasoned with a little olive oil. Consider that 2 teaspoons olive oil provide 10 grams of fat and 90 calories. You risk to exceed the needs of calories for lunch.
  At dinner you could eat a portion of meat or fish with raw or cooked vegetables and a portion of bread (50g - 1 3/4 ounce).
  If you like the combination of its ingredients and would like to prepare it for your dinner or lunch, use these amounts per head: 80g (2.8 ounces) long-grain, parboiled rice, 150g (5 1/3 ounces) grape, 25g (1 ounce) walnut cheese, the amount you prefer of chives, 300ml (10 fluid ounces or 1 1/3 cup) vegetable stock, 2 teaspoons olive oil and less than half a glass of wine.
  
• - As you can see it's a tomato-free recipe, ideal for people intolerant or alergic to tomatoes.
• - Grape-and-cheese risotto has only 2.7 grams of fiber. The recommended daily value is 30g.
• - I remember you my original home recipes can be made without salt. There is always a combination of flavors that substitutes salt

Loretta

What's the right wine for " Risotto with white grape and walnut cheese "?

My husband and I suggest you to match Greco di Tufo (an Italian white wine from Campania, region around Naples).