Christmas Eve Dinner: Risotto Milanese

How unprepared were we? All I can say in my defense is that I was focused on spending my Christmas break with Ann and not worrying about food for once. We ended up on Christmas Eve with no supplies in the house and nothing planned for Christmas dinner. Call it poor planning but I didn't really care.

That morning, while scavenging the pantry, I found a half a kilo of Arborio rice and that's about all I need to make dinner. We had a little grated pecorino in the fridge, some mangy onions in the pantry, a scrap of butter on the counter, and a few shrimp in the freezer.

After watching the third and final part of The Hobbit trilogy at the theatre, we dropped by the restaurant and scored a pinch of saffron, the final ingredient for our risotto milanese. And so for our solo Christmas Eve dinner, we had wonderfully rich, creamy, and decadent risotto.

Risotto Milanese with Shrimp

In deference to the Italian in our family who likes her risotto more cooked than I like mine, I left it to sit for a couple of minutes before serving to soften up just a bit more. It was awesome and who better to share it with than my Annie?