Out of Town

Disclaimer:  I am no longer in Milan but wrote the posts daily while I was there.  Please feel free to comment or ask questions as if I were still in Italy.

Buon giorno,
The weather turned yesterday, and it rained over night and was cold and cloudy this morning.  In other words, it was not a great  day to go north.  But museums are closed Monday, and my time here is growing so short.  I took the train to Lago di Como.
First of all at some point Italy switched over to daylight savings time.  Fortunately I noticed the discrepancy between my watch and public clocks, or catching trains and my plane home would have become problematical.
I strolled down to the train station and bought my ticket and hopped aboard.  The trip took about an hour.  At first we crossed the Lombard Plain created by the mighty river Po.  Then almost imperceptibly we began to climb.  The landscape began to change.  Hills and stands of conifers appeared.  The hills grew steeper and higher, and then we began to descend toward the lake.  Como Town dates back to Roman times and now is a very pretty place to visit.  In fact if one were sufficiently rich it would be a good place to indulge some lakeside dolce vita.  The truth is that all the luxe action is further north at Bellagio, a place that I (alas!) have no time to visit this trip.
I had gelato, of course.  The place I stopped at had a flavor called Giotto.  How could I resist?  Giotto proved to be some hazelnut vanilla.  Very tasty.  My other flavors were cinnamon and walnut, and both were sublime.   The sky was over cast and the temperatures chilly, but I enjoyed walking around the town and took a long walk along the lake.  I marveled at the steep sided hills and the houses perched on them.  Then back home to Milan.
Hey, Pil, what about risotto Milanese?  I'm not having any this trip, but I have made it several times, and I enjoy it.  What makes the risotto "Milanese" is a pinch of saffron.  If you don't have any make risotto anyway.  I don't have a lot of patience for painful "authenticity" where the story is you can't make the whatever without unobtainable ingredients.  In fact the Real Deal includes quite a bit of butter, beef stock, and some of the veal bone marrow from the Osso Bucco that the risotto traditionally accompanies.
Ergh!
 Yes.  Still you MUST use short grained rice.  Arborio is the Italian variety, but you can find California grown short grained rice for less money in most grocery stores.  Using mixes is wimping out because making it from scratch is just as easy.   I am sure you can find the proportions of ingredients on line or in one of your cookbooks, but the important think to remember is that risotto takes a hot more liquid than the usual two to one proportion.  Heat some olive oil (butter is more authentically Lombardian) in a pan and add a tablespoon or two of finely chopped shallot or mild onion.  Add and toast the rice grains (in olive oil if you don't want butter because no one will know the difference!). Then add a little white wine or vermouth and stir until it evaporates.  Now you have a choice.  You can add hot stock (I use chicken) with saffron bit by bit and stand there stirring as the rice absorbs the liquid and then add more, which I have done.  Or you can dump everything into a slow cooker for an hour and a half.   I understand you can also cook risotto in the microwave, but I have never tried it.  Look it up on line if you are interested.
The rice will be gooey and creamy looking.  The grains should be cooked through and tender.  At this point the Milanese would add more butter and grated Parmesan.  Skip the butter.  Parmesan is sufficient.  Or mix in whatever you like. Eat with a fork right away.  I like this with Prosecco, but probably red wine is more traditional.
What did you have for dinner tonight?
I had some olives, salad, some proschiutto cotta, and some indifferent canneloni.  I tried Lambrusco which is a red slightly sparking wine.  It was ok.  I am not sure it's meant to be drunk with dinner though.
Ciao