Finishing risotto with olive oil or butter - Lidia (2024)

FAQs

Is it better to make risotto with butter or olive oil? ›

According to Salvatore, it all depends on the ingredients. The chef prefers oil over butter (and oil works particularly well with seafood risottos), but butter is better for vegetable-based dishes like Rampoldi's black truffle with mushroom or mixed vegetable and ginger risotto.

Many people mistakenly think that butter, and lots of it, is required as the finish, to make risotto creamy. Olive oil at the end adds a nice complexity that does not alter the essential flavor of the risotto: it is, in my opinion, a cleaner finish.

Olive oil became a staple ingredient in Italian cuisine due to its abundance in the Mediterranean region and its versatility in cooking. The mild climate and fertile soil of Italy provide ideal conditions for growing olive trees, resulting in high-quality olive oil production.

How to Reheat: Add the desired amount of risotto to a medium-sized saucepot along with ¼ to 1/3 cup of water and stir over low heat until hot and creamy. Traditionally, risotto is finished with whole butter.

Always use warm stock.

Warming the broth before adding it to the warm rice coaxes more starch out of each grain of rice and helps prevent it from overcooking. Cool broth takes longer to warm up in the risotto pan and may shock the grain into holding onto its starches while the rice itself continues to cook.

Both are cooking fats that offer incredible flavor. However, they have differing ideal uses so it's important to clarify when to use each product. In short, butter is better for making fluffy baked goods such as cakes while olive oil is better for everyday cooking and making dense sweets.

Butter Makes Your Fried Rice Taste Richer But Also Increases Fat Content. Since cooking with butter infuses food with a richer flavor and texture in general, you might find that frying leftover rice in oil leaves it bland in comparison.

Italians often use olive oil (specifically extra virgin olive oil) to dress cooked pasta. This can be as simple as a liberal drizzle over a finished pasta dish, but the most famous example is pasta aglio e olio, or pasta with olive oil and garlic.