It was September 1574, and Milan’s cathedral, the Duomo, had been under construction for almost two hundred years. By then, the whole cathedral was surrounded by a jumble of shacks and tents which housed carpenters, artists and architects from all over Europe.

Among them was the Belgian glasscutter Valerio Fiandra, accompanied by his most skillful apprentice, Zafferano, so called because of his habit of adding an ounce of saffron powder to his paints to really liven them up.

Maestro Fiandra was greatly amused by his apprentice’s practice and often teased him. “ A little saffron in the gray, a little more in the green… I wouldn’t be surprised if you started to put saffron inside your food!”

Sure enough, for laughs Zafferano decided to mix some of the precious yellow Crocus stigmas into the rice that was to be served at Maestro Fiandra’s daughter’s wedding. Needless to say, the glasscutter wasn’t too amused. At least not until he had the courage to taste a spoonful of the yellow mountain of rice. The mountain was soon reduced to an empty bowl and, for the delight everyone’s taste buds, risotto alla Milanese was born!

The skinny:
- Sautee one small onion (and, for the purists and anyone who scoffs at BSE coming between them and a proper plate of risotto, two tablespoons of beef bone marrow) in a hearty plug of butter first.
- Then add a pound of risotto rice (for purists, semifino vialone nano), and heat well, stirring for 2-3 minutes.
- Add half a glass of white wine, and toss until wine evaporates.
- Then add three ladles of already boiling beef broth, stir once, and let sit on medium-low flame without stirring until next ladle is needed (broth both evaporates and is slowly absorbed by rice).
- Half-way through, “melt” a pinch of saffron in a ladle-full of boiling broth, and add to the risotto.
- Turn off flame when the rice is “al dente” and the risotto “all’onda”, (literally, it stays “to the wave”; ask a Milanese and you’ll get a metaphysical disquisition about rice acquiescing harmoniously when subjected to energetic forces imparted to it by a wave. Just think rice with a California, go-with-the-flow, surfer-like attitude). Roughly, it needs to woggle as opposed to remain immobile when you wobble the pan. (Woggle and wobble both being very scientific terms.) I.e., it should still be liquid enough.
- Add another plug of butter and some parmiggiano, and stir for 30 seconds.
- Let sit for a minute and serve.
Enjoy!

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-- Contributed by Valentina Nesci, writer, American University of Rome Senior, Italian Notebook Editorial Intern.

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