After the carbonara day, I was left with some unused bacon so, being a little fed up with the “usual” recipes, I decided to make a gricia risotto.
It is a sort of reinterpretation of the most famous “pasta alla gricia” and will certainly bring an equal load of taste to our tables. The realization of gricia risotto is relatively easy and fast.
Ingredients for 2 people
160 gr of Carnaroli Rice
70 gr of Guanciale
Half a glass of Dry White Wine
1 knob of Butter
Salt and Black Pepper to taste
2 tablespoons of Grated Pecorino Romano Cheese to taste
1 liter of Vegetable Broth
In the meantime, while we wait for the vegetable broth to be ready, we proceed to slice the guanciale into strips no thicker than half a centimeter. In a pan we will brown it over medium-low heat so that slowly it releases its fats. We pay attention so that the guanciale does not dry out too much, because otherwise it would lose part of its flavor. Having said that, as soon as it is ready, move the guanciale out of the pan and set aside the (filtered) fat that is now in a liquid state.
We then proceed to toast the rice briefly in a pan over high heat and when it is toasted, we will blend it with white wine. We will then begin its cooking by adding, gradually, from time to time, a little vegetable broth, avoiding that it exceeds the surface of the rice in height. A carnaroli rice cooks on average in 16-18 min. We will use this time to grate some Pecorino Romano cheese. If this were to be excessively salty we could mix it with a little part of Parmigiano Reggiano which has a decidedly lower degree of salt.
At the moment of creaming, together with the classic knob of butter, this time we will also use the fat that we have previously extracted from the guanciale. We will then add the pecorino romano cheese, 2/3 of the guanciale and mix, away from the flame, until completely creamed. Let’s taste and check if the risotto alla gricia needs more salt (even if in theory we should be right between the flavor of the broth, that of the pecorino and the guanciale). Serve gricia risotto on plates sprinkling with plenty of black pepper and placing the additional third of the previously unused guanciale on top.
