Risotto all’Amarone: a souvenir from Verona
Preparations are in full swing for Vinitaly 2018 in Verona and a thousand initiatives related to wine are about to start, not only within the framework of the expo but also in the city centre. The spirit of celebration that reigns in Verona is special and deserves to be fully enjoyed.
To celebrate Vinitaly and our beautiful Verona, its beauties and culinary delights, we decided to give you the recipe for the famous risotto all’Amarone della Valpolicella as a souvenir.
The Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG is a red wine of dark colour, full bodied and with a high alcohol content (minimum 14 degrees, but it also rises to 16), it is suitable for heavy foods such as game, braised meat and seasoned cheeses. To produce it, the native vines of Corvina Veronese, Corvinone and Rondinella are used as per regulation. It is produced from the withering of the grapes and its name “Amarone” indicates the difference with the “Recioto”, a sweet passito, made with a similar procedure in the same areas of Valpolicella. Today the areas of production of Valpolicella wine have been extended beyond the traditional area which includes Marano, Negrar and Fumane (Valpolicella Classica), to the northeast valleys of Mezzane, Marcellise, Illasi and Tramigna (Valpolicella doc) and to the area of Valpantena (sole recognized sub-area).
For today’s recipe we recommend a winery that is exactly behind our house in Marcellise, in the extended Valpolicella area. This is the Azienda Agricola Marion, a family-run winery that produces excellent wines with the highest quality standards. Founded in the 1980s by Stefano Campedelli and his wife Nicoletta, the Marion company is extremely attentive to the care of its vineyards, respecting their natural balance and enhancing their wines through all stages of production. Moreover, they are very nice and helpful!
For our recipe you can choose whether to prepare the traditional risotto using their Amarone, or to try a revisitation using the Valpolicella Superiore.
In the second case you get a softer and sweeter risotto, so it’s advisable to halve the amount of onion for the soffritto, which is used instead in the Amarone risotto to mitigate the taste.
Ingredients for 4 people:
400g Vialone Nano rice
900ml vegetable and chicken broth
300ml Amarone or Valpolicella Superiore
30g red onion
extra virgin olive oil
60g grated Grana Padano cheese
a knob of butter
salt and pepper to taste
Preparation
– Fry the chopped onion in a saucepan with the oil and set it aside.
– Toast the rice in a saucepan with the oil for about 3-5 minutes, until it becomes translucent.
– Add the Amarone to the rice, raise the heat and allow the wine to evaporate, stirring gently. Add salt and pepper.
– Once the wine has evaporated, add the boiling broth all at once and the onion that you sautéed previously. Mix well, lower the heat and cover.
– Cook for about 15 minutes, then remove the saucepan from the flame and add the butter and the grated cheese.
At this point, you can accompany the dish with the bottle of wine you have opened to prepare it!
Useful information:
Az. agricola Marion, via Borgo 2, Marcellise 37036, San Martino Buon Albergo – Verona – Italia. Tel. 045 8740021 – info@marionvini.it
