Melt two ounces of good fresh butter in a sauce-pan over a sharp fire, add one onion chopped fine, brown a deep golden colour, then add about ten ounces of clean rice (Italian if possible) and two large truffles chopped up. Stir without stopping for one and a half minutes, and add one quart of boiling veal broth, stir and let it cook for fourteen minutes. Add six chopped-up mushrooms, and, a little at a time, one more quart of broth, stirring constantly over a sharp fire for ten minutes more. Put in half a teaspoonful of salt, a little pepper, one and a half ounces of grated Parmesan cheese, and a teaspoonful of saffron soaked in two tablespoonfuls of hot broth, and strained. Cook three or four minutes longer, stirring all the time, then pour into a deep dish, and serve hot with some grated Parmesan cheese separate. It is an improvement to put a tablespoonful of marrow into the centre just before serving.
Risotto ‘alla Milanese.’ No. 2.
Cut up an onion and cook it with one and a half ounces of beef marrow, and the same quantity of good butter; when browned put in one pound of rice and add three-quarters of a glass of good white wine and broth enough to cook the rice. Before taking off the fire add one and a half ounces of butter and some grated Parmesan cheese, and serve with more grated cheese separately.
Risotto with Peas.
Mince up one small onion, brown it in two ounces of butter, then put in one pound of rice, and stir with a ladle until the rice has taken up all the butter. Add hot water (a cupful at a time), sprinkle with salt, and let it boil dry, adding two ounces of butter. Before taking it off the fire add peas cooked ‘[alla Borghese]’ omitting the milk and eggs. Mix, sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese, and serve hot.
Risotto ‘alla Poggio Gherardo.’
Mince an onion, put it into a three-quart sauce-pan, and brown with three ounces of good butter. Take out the onion, put in one pound of rice, and half a wineglassful of Marsala. Reduce over a brisk fire, then add one quart of stock, and boil hard so as to reduce in eighteen minutes. Then take it off the fire and season with one ounce of good butter, one ounce of grated Parmesan cheese, three or four fowls’ livers and mushrooms minced up fine, and some good gravy. Serve hot.