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(chime sound)
Rocco: Hey everybody, I'm Rocco Dispirito.
In my new book, Now Eat This, Italian,
I make our favorite Italian American classics all under
three hundred and fifty calories.
And I came to Italy to learn the original techniques
from the very best cooks in the world, Italian mamas.
Here's how I did it.
(jumpy music)
We are in Sorrento chantro, literally in the middle of Sorrento, Italy
with Concetta Cadolini, who is the mother of a good friend of mine,
who's also named Rocco.
She's going to show us how to make mushroom risotto.
Rocco: (speaking Italian)
Woman: (speaking Italian)
Rocco: Yeah, OK.
Woman: (speaking Italian)
Rocco: (speaking Italian)
Woman: (speaking Italian)
Rocco: OK.
(sizzling sound)
Porcini, of course the famous mushroom of Italy, often sold dry
but in the Fall you can get it fresh.
and it's a lot of Porcini going in there for a hundred grams.
She's got a super, dark rich, thick broth going on in here.
It's going to be some serious mushroom flavor.
We've been cooking this about fifteen minutes,
and it's just about done.
She's dying to put the Parmigiano-Reggiano in there.
Stir it right in.
Let's taste this.
Mmm.
Woman: (speaking Italian)
Rocco: Mmm.
So the trick is, same amount of mushrooms, as there is rice.
I've never seen it done that way,
but I've also never tasted mushrooms that were this good.
Nothing like a momma's cooking to make a professional chef feel really inadequate.
Alright, my turn.
OK, so I'm going to make my risotto.
It starts with butter.
Butter is definitely hard to replace.
It's just a little bit of butter.
Garlic.
And then we add the farro.
I'm not cooking with rice, I'm cooking with whole grain farro.
Farro is a type of wheat berry.
It's extremely good for you.
It has a ton of protein protein,
much lower in carbs than even brown rice.
And you sauté both together.
I add salt at this point.
You want to toast the farro a little bit just the way she did the rice.
The reason that you harden the outside of rice is so that
the outside and inside cook at the same rates
because they're actually two kinds of starches, one is softer than the other.
and it works for farro as well.
I''ve got a mix of fresh wild mushrooms and salt again, at this point
because I want to help release some of the water in the mushrooms.
And I want that water to start cooking right.
Now, I'm going to add stock, and the stock is something I made
with these dried mushrooms.
So I took low sodium low fat chicken stock,
I took dried Shitake mushrooms and I threw them together.
I let them sit overnight in the fridge and the next day
you have this incredibly strong Shitake tea basically.
And let that cook all together.
OK, now we're gong to add kale.
Because it's summertime in Italy, I'm using swiss chard,
but at home you can find kale all year round.
Woman: (speaking Italian)
Rocco: And that just cooks right with everything else.
(grating sound)
Pepper.
A little more stock.
Because the farro actually takes two to three times its own weight.
And nothing wrong with throwing those mushrooms in there as well.
So you continue stirring when it comes back to a boil, you cover it.
(tapping sound)
(clamp sound)
OK, so this has been cooking for about thirty minutes,
and you can see the difference in the farro.
It is exploded.
It's cooked now.
It's a very delicious grain.
So the vegetables are cooked.
The mushrooms nice and soft.
The farro's cooked but I don't have that thick rich creamy
risotto viscocity, consistency.
So how are we going to do that?
We're going to make an arrowroot slurry, and use arrowroot
to thicken the liquid, the cooking liquid.
And the way you do that, is you take some of the chicken stock mushroom tea.
You add it to the arrowroot powder, and mix is with your fingers
until the arrowroot is completely dissolved,
and then you add it to boiling liquid.
And it thickens immediately, so you know the results of your work.
It went from thin to thick.
Finishing touch of risotto is always lots of Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Great thing about Parmigiano-Reggiano, in addition to it's wonderfully
unique flavor is that it's pretty low in calories.
It's made from partially skim milk,
so you're ahead of the game when you use it.
Plate it, taste it, give it the Momma test.
Risotta when it's cooked, should be liquid.
It shouldn't be a solid mass.
So, you see when I put them on the plate it moves?
That's what you're looking for.
Rocco: (speaking Italian)
Alright let's give it the Momma test.
Woman: Mm-Hmm. (speaking Italian).
Rocco (speaking Italian)
Woman: (speaking Italian)
Rocco: So here's the real good news of the day.
The original version of mushroom risotto is
six hundred eight calories, twenty five grams of fat.
But now with this version, only three hundred thirty one calories,
and eight point five grams of fat.
That's a big difference, that's half.
Now I know you want to eat this version of mushroom risotto,
but now eat this version of mushroom risotto,
thanks to the inspiration of Concetta Condolini.
(music)
Rocco: (speaking Italian)
(camera clicking sound)
(music)