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Featured Chef Judith Barrett
Bio
Judith Barrett has been a food writer in Boston for more than twenty years. Her articles appeared regularly in The Boston Globe for twelve years, as well as in other local publications. She has written for The New York Times Living Section and the Magazine, The Washington Post and many other national publications.
Interview
When did you first taste risotto?
Many years before I ever thought of writing about risotto, I tasted risotto on a trip through northern Italy's lake region. In Stresa, on Lago Maggiore, I had my first forkful, and it was truly a transcendent experience: rice like I'd never tasted, amazingly creamy and wonderfully flavorful. What was most surprising was that risotto was more prevalent than pasta! Menus offered several risotti but usually only one or at most two pastas. That was because rice is the daily starch of northern Italy.
Your cookbooks suggest that risotto's not just Italian anymore. Where do you get ideas for your many diverse recipes?
Ideas for recipes come from some strange -- and some not so strange places. In Risotto, all the recipes are based on Italian recipes. In Risotto Risotti I did research in Italy but I also researched the cooking of chefs in America who have embraced risotto and "modernized" it, both in how it's cooked and how it's presented and served.
And finally, some recipes are created out of necessity and I make them up but base them on my own understanding of cooking and the Italian culinary tradition.
What are your favorite risotto recipes? What do you like to serve to accompany risotto?
As far as I've traveled, my favorite risotti are still the traditional, even classic and often the simplest -- vegetable or seafood risotti. As they do in Italy, I like to serve risotto as a first course -- because when entertaining, it's easiest to serve it first and not have to get up to cook it between courses as it should be served as soon as it's finished cooking -- with a simple main course or salad to follow. I tend to go the Italian way.
What is the advantage of using a pressure cooker for risotto?
From my experience, the pressure cooker is the only short-cut method for cooking a risotto that has all the qualities of a true risotto: creamy texture, with firm grains of rice.
How long have you been using pressure cookers and how have you seen them change over the years?
I have been using pressure cookers since I started to learn how to cook thirty years ago. I still have my mother's original pressure cooker she was given for her wedding in 1937 which she gave to me, and which I learned to cook in.
In Risotto Risotto you note that pressure cookers are used more widely in Europe than the US. Why is that, and do you see this changing?
I think Europe used pressure cookers more than Americans because their kitchens were more limited and the pressure cooker often doubles for an oven. Also in Europe fuel was expensive and pressure cookers cook more quickly. I think Americans are warming to the idea of pressure cookers because they see you can cook certain things extremely well -- maybe even better than in a conventional pot.
Do you have tips for converting conventional risotto recipes for the pressure cooker?
Some tips on converting conventional risotto recipes into pressure cooker recipes can be found in Risotto Risotti. Here are a few tips when using a pressure cooker:
What is your next culinary project?
Look for low-fat soup recipes -- some of which can be made in the pressure cooker -- later this year. I always make my chicken broth in the pressure cooker and always cook beans that way too.
