Go Back
Print Recipe

Hazelnut risotto

I had this dish at a Piedmontese restaurant called Diqui (in Vercelli)
Hazelnuts are a typical northern Italian product from Piedmont. This is where Nutella was invented after all.
Course: Gluten-free, Mains, Risotto, Starters
Cuisine: Italian, Piedmontese
Keyword: Hazelnuts, Risotto
Servings: 4

Ingredients

  • 100 g Hazelnuts
  • 50 g Butter
  • 2 Shallots or ideally, sweet white onions, chopped
  • 300 g Piedmontese risotto rice such as Vialone Nano, Baldo or Carnaroli.
  • 1 glass White wine
  • 2 litres Vegetable or mushroom stock, hot
  • 50 g Pecorino cheese or local Piedmontese cheese
  • 30-50 g Butter
  • Sea salt
  • White pepper
  • a few drops Hazelnut oil

Instructions

  • Toast the hazelnuts lightly, taking care not to scorch them
  • Using a heavy bottomed saucepan on a medium low heat, add the butter and onions and soften.
  • Add the rice and stir continually, making sure neither the onions nor the rice gets burnt.
  • Then when it is hot enough, add the glass of white wine, stirring.
  • Simmer for a few minutes then add the hot vegetable stock, ladle by ladle until each is absorbed by rice.
  • Coming up to 20 minute mark, beat in the cheese and butter.
  • Adjust seasoning, sea salt and white pepper
  • Add the hazelnuts, leaving some whole for the top
  • Remove from the heat and add a drizzle of hazelnut oil