Risotto

If you’re using canned chicken broth to make risotto, be sure it’s low-sodium. The broth reduces at the same time that it’s cooking into the rice, and regular canned broth would become much too salty.

Roasted butternut squash gets incorporated into decadent risotto, then topped with juicy shrimp in this fantastic dish.

There are some dishes in Croatia, like this risotto, which we call specijaliteti, which means they are just special. You could call this the magical dish of the Adriatic, because it will enchant your taste buds.

This vegetarian risotto is enriched with a flavorful broccoli rabe that's stirred in before serving. The method is a little simpler than the one for traditional risotto: instead of stirring in hot stock by the cupful, it's added in just two batches.

Slowly cooking the butternut squash along with the rice not only makes this a simple one-pot dish, it allows every drop of flavor to infuse the risotto.

This clever “risotto” is made with carrot juice and chicken broth and dotted with peas, for a fun take on peas and carrots.

If you buy just-shucked whole clams rather than already chopped clams in a container, use their liquid instead of the bottled clam juice; just be sure to strain it first through a paper towel to remove any grit.

Using the mushroom-soaking liquid to cook the rice gives this risotto intense flavor. There's just enough goat cheese to balance the earthiness of the porcini with a touch of tartness without overwhelming the dish.

At New York City's Craft, Tom Colicchio pairs chef James Tracey's pea-bacon risotto with Mark Tarlov's Oregon Pinot Noir: "It was great to find someone who was excited about creating a house wine."

This simple and satisfying risotto was inspired by a dish from Wanda and Giovanna Tornabene's famed restaurant, Gangivecchio, in Sicily. You can substitute bacon and most types of winter squash (like delicata) for the ingredients used here.

Chefs Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman of Memphis's Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen worked together to make this risotto. Their secret weapon: a pressure cooker.

Fresh and dried mushrooms give this risotto a double dose of earthy flavor. You can use twice the shrimp and no scallops, or the reverse. If you prefer sea scallops, quarter them.

Rajat Parr came up with this vibrant risotto when trying to feed a bunch of hungry friends in his San Francisco apartment from a pantry that happened to contain tomatoes and farro.

Jeff Smith loves cooking with his children and often lets them pick the ingredients. "Kids come up with cool flavor combinations that an adult would never think of," he says. "I learn a lot that way." This risotto was created when Smith's daughter, Isabelle, tossed some Laughing Cow cheese into a pot of risotto. "It adds a lot of richness without making the dish taste too sharp," Smith says. The cup of Budweiser beer is his own addition, a last-minute fix on a night he found himself without white wine in the house. "I ended up preferring it to wine in this dish," he says.

If you can't find any Meyer lemons, use regular (Eureka) lemons.

Risotto alla milanese, the traditional accompaniment to osso buco, is flavored with saffron, which is the world’s most expensive spice. The deep-red filaments are the dried stigmas of a variety of crocus and they’re harvested exclusively by hand. Each crocus has three stigmas and it takes more than 14,000 to make one ounce of saffron.

Chef Massimiliano Alajmo's risotto tip: Stir in a little reserved hot stock at the end to keep the rice from getting too gummy. Here, Alajmo infuses the stock with espresso beans, then garnishes the risotto with pungent capers.

This vegetarian risotto is infused with the moderately hot Chimayó chile powder from the town of Chimayó in northern New Mexico. Shiitakes not only add an earthy flavor, they also provide zinc and several B vitamins.

For this supersimple risotto, chef Jonathan Justus grills eggplant until smoky and charred, then blends the creamy flesh into the cooked rice. Just before serving, he sprinkles on sumac, a tart Middle Eastern spice made from the dried berry.

Count Paolo Marzotto and his family love this luscious risotto made with carletti, a wild herb with the uninviting Latin name Silene vulgaris, or bladder campion. The herb, which has a sweet, pea-like flavor, can be replaced by any number of baby greens, from baby spinach to baby turnip greens—or even fresh pea shoots.

When Ryan Poli and his kitchen staff tried finishing orzo risotto-style (stirring the cooked orzo with stock until creamy) they got fantastic results with impressive speed.

Even if the sun-dried tomatoes are dry-packed, there’s no need to soak them before adding them to the risotto; the simmering broth will reconstitute them as the rice cooks.

This vegetarian risotto is enriched with a flavorful broccoli rabe that's stirred in before serving. The method is a little simpler than the one for traditional risotto: instead of stirring in hot stock by the cupful, it's added in just two batches.

“Despite its name, sweet brown rice isn’t sweet,” says chef Marco Canora. Instead, this short-grain glutinous rice resembles whole-grain sushi rice. Here, Canora uses it to make a hearty vegetarian risotto.

This lovely risotto is finished with a cauliflower-and-fava puree, which makes it extra-creamy.

Marzapane restaurant in Rome flavors this buttery risotto with both salted anchovies and colatura, the deeply savory Italian version of fish sauce. As a surprisingly delicious contrast to the rich risotto, the chef garnishes the dish with candied ginger.

Roasting mushrooms concentrates their flavor, while dry vermouth offers an aromatic kick to this otherwise classic risotto.