Risotto with Mascarpone and Prosciutto

Risotto with Mascarpone and Prosciutto

A couple of weeks ago, I asked my facebook friends' favorite risotto flavors. Parmesan was a popular flavor. Mushrooms was also fairly common. I was a little surprised by the answers given primarily because they're ubiquitous. Furthermore, I examined several Italian restaurant menus but I didn't find much more creativity with their risottos.

I don't know about you, but I get bored with common flavors. It's the reason why I've profiled one with Japanese ingredients, one where I substituted red wine for white and not one but two versions where I replaced the Arborio rice with another starch.

You might be curious to note that I used rather pedestrian flavors but I didn't prepare this risotto to demonstrate interesting ingredient pairings for the sake of taste. The reason I'm presenting this dish to you is due to it's viscosity. A risotto is normally finished off with butter and parmesan but in this case, gruyere and mascarpone is substituted for the parmesan which resulted in a creamier consistency. In addition, the prosciutto also added a contrast in texture because it is crispy, when prepared in the manner the recipe suggests. Other than tasting it for seasoning after the herbs and cheese have been added, I didn't alter this dish from foodnetwork.com so I kindly request you go there for it.

Successful?

I'm happy to report that this risotto has replaced the one with peas and bacon as Mrs. Stuntman's new favorite. In fact, I have a funny feeling this dish will be making a encore appearance on my dinner table sometime soon. I can only conclude that there is something to these vanilla flavors after all. Whew knew?