The original risotto alla milanese: saffron threads, beef marrow, meat broth and a mantecatura with butter and Grana Padano. Ready in 40 minutes.
Introduction
Risotto alla milanese is the yellow risotto, the one that in Milan is eaten on its own or alongside ossobuco, and it is perhaps the best known of all Italian risottos. The ingredients of the original recipe are few and cannot be swapped: Carnaroli rice, saffron, beef marrow, meat broth, butter and Grana Padano, with a little onion for the soffritto. Saffron gives the golden color and an intense, floral aroma with a slightly bitter edge; the marrow, melted in the butter, brings a roundness that butter alone does not give. It is a dish of technique more than of ingredients, and it is easy to get wrong: a pale risotto with no aroma, or a gluey risotto with mushy grains.
You avoid the first mistake by treating saffron as a delicate spice: the threads should be left to steep in hot broth, not thrown into the soffritto, where the dry heat burns off their aroma, and they go in halfway through cooking, so they have time to color the rice without losing fragrance. You avoid the second with the toasting and the mantecatura: the rice must be heated well in the fat before any liquid goes in, and at the end, off the heat, it is bound with cold butter and Grana until the risotto is glossy and soft and spreads out on the plate. In Milan they call it «all'onda», like a wave.
In the glass we pour the Chardonnay IGT by La Caneva dei Biasio, a white from the Veneto foothills made in steel, dry and with a mineral finish, with aromas of apple and white flowers that accompany the saffron without covering it. For those who want to stay in Lombardy, the Franciacorta Brut by Muratori.
The History of Risotto alla Milanese
Milan tells a legend about the origin of the yellow risotto. In the sixteenth century, on the building site of the Duomo, there worked a young apprentice glassmaker whom his companions called Saffron, because he added a pinch of the spice to his colors to make them brighter. As a joke, on the day his master's daughter was married, he is said to have had saffron put into the rice at the banquet too, and the yellow dish pleased everyone. The story has no documents behind it, but it says something true: in Milan saffron was a well-known and costly spice, and the color gold on the table was a sign of celebration.
The first written recipe comes much later. In 1829 Felice Luraschi, in his «Nuovo cuoco milanese economico», describes a yellow rice cooked with beef marrow, broth and saffron, and at the end of the nineteenth century Pellegrino Artusi included it in his «Scienza in cucina» under the name we still use. Since then the recipe has stayed almost the same: marrow in the soffritto, meat broth, saffron, butter and grated cheese. In 1981 Gualtiero Marchesi turned it into a signature dish, «Riso, oro e zafferano», with a sheet of gold leaf laid on the rice: a nod to the legend of the glassmaker. In Milanese homes, though, the yellow risotto remains the Sunday dish, alongside ossobuco.
Ingredients
For the broth and saffron
- hot meat broth1300 ml
- saffron threads0,3 g
For the risotto
- Carnaroli rice320 g
- beef marrow40 g
- butter for the soffritto20 g
- white onion, very finely chopped60 g
- dry white wine100 ml
For the mantecatura
- butter, cold from the fridge40 g
- grated Grana Padano60 g
- saltas needed
Nutritional Values per Serving
Values calculated from the recipe's ingredients using the CREA food composition tables, and from the labels of our products where available. They are an estimate per serving, not a laboratory analysis.
Equipment Needed
- Wide, shallow heavy-bottomed pan
- Pot to keep the broth hot
- Small cup for steeping the saffron
- Ladle and wooden spoon
- Knife and cutting board
- Fine grater
Tip: Ask your butcher for the marrow, in a beef bone cut into rounds: you just push it out with the handle of a teaspoon. If you leave it in cold water for an hour before using it, it loses any remaining blood and melts more cleanly into the soffritto. For cooking you need a wide, shallow pan: the rice should sit in a thin layer, so it cooks evenly and the broth evaporates at the right rate.
How to Make Risotto alla Milanese — Original Recipe
The saffron
Bring the meat broth almost to a boil and keep it hot over the lowest heat. Put the saffron threads in a small cup, cover them with a small ladle of hot broth and let them steep for at least twenty minutes, until the liquid turns a deep orange. Meanwhile, chop the onion very finely and cut the beef marrow into small pieces.
Chef's tip: Saffron should never go into the hot fat of the soffritto: the dry heat burns off its aroma. Steeped in broth, on the other hand, it slowly releases color and fragrance.
Toasting the rice
In the pan, melt the 20 g of butter with the marrow over low heat, pressing it with the spoon until it melts. Add the onion and let it soften for five or six minutes without letting it color. Turn up the heat, pour in the rice and toast it for two or three minutes, stirring, until the grains are hot to the touch and translucent at the edges. Deglaze with the white wine and let it evaporate completely.
Chef's tip: The onion must stay white: if it browns it brings a bitter taste that the saffron makes even more noticeable.
Cooking
Add the hot broth one ladle at a time, waiting each time until it is almost absorbed, and stir without overdoing it. Halfway through, after eight or nine minutes, pour in the saffron infusion with all the threads and carry on with the broth. Carnaroli needs 16-18 minutes in all from the first ladle: start tasting from the fourteenth minute, the grain should stay just al dente.
Chef's tip: Keep the risotto a little looser than you want it on the plate: during the mantecatura and the rest the rice keeps absorbing liquid.
The mantecatura
Turn off the heat and wait a minute. Add the cold butter in cubes and the grated Grana and stir vigorously, or shake the pan back and forth, until the risotto turns glossy and creamy. Taste and adjust the salt, cover and let it rest for two minutes. Serve it all'onda, on warm plates, spreading it out with a tap on the bottom of the plate.
Chef's tip: The butter must be cold from the fridge: as it melts slowly it binds with the starch of the rice and forms the cream. Soft butter, on the other hand, separates and leaves the risotto greasy.
Wine to Pair with Risotto alla Milanese
Risotto alla milanese looks like a delicate dish, and it is not. Saffron brings an intense, floral aroma with a touch of honey and a slightly bitter edge that lingers at the back of the mouth. The beef marrow, melted in the soffritto, and the butter of the mantecatura give a full, round fat, and the Grana adds a long savoriness. The onion, cooked slowly, lays a light sweetness under everything else. So the wine has two jobs: to lift the fat of the marrow and butter off the palate, and not to quarrel with the saffron. Tannin should be left out, because on saffron it turns bitter and on creamy rice it dries the mouth. A very aromatic white is also best avoided, because its aroma overlaps with that of the spice. What you need is a dry white with clean acidity and a discreet aroma of fruit and flowers, one that accompanies the saffron without covering it. Chardonnay, in two different styles, answers both requirements.
The White We Recommend
Chardonnay IGT — La Caneva dei Biasio — The **Chardonnay IGT by La Caneva dei Biasio**, from the Classica line, comes from grapes grown in the Veneto foothills and is made only in steel at a controlled temperature, with no wood. It is Chardonnay in its most direct form, and with risotto alla milanese it works with two tools. The first is acidity: the sip is dry and closes on a mineral note, and that freshness lifts the fat of the marrow and butter off the palate, so the next forkful arrives clean. The second is aroma. The tasting notes list ripe Golden apple and white flowers, two notes that sit close to the floral, honeyed side of the saffron and accompany it instead of contrasting with it. Finally, the softness of the grape goes well with the sweetness of the onion and the creaminess of the rice. The limit should be said: at 10,5% vol it is a light white, and with a very rich risotto, with plenty of marrow and generous Grana, it stays a step behind the dish. With the quantities in this recipe the balance holds. Serve it at 10-12 °C: any colder and the fruit closes up, leaving only the acidity.
The Lombard Alternative
Franciacorta D.O.C.G. Brut — Muratori — Those who want to stay in Lombardy, the home region of the dish, will find the same grape in another guise. The **Franciacorta Brut by Muratori** is a classic-method sparkling wine made mainly from Chardonnay, from vineyards spread across the six vocational zones of Franciacorta, aged on its lees in the bottle for at least eighteen months. With risotto alla milanese the bubble does what acidity does in the still wine, only with more force: the carbonation carries away the fat of the marrow and butter with every sip, which makes it the choice for those who are generous with the mantecatura. The aromas of citrus, green apple and citron refresh the mouth after the spice, and the linden blossom echoes the floral side of the saffron. With 4 grams of sugar per liter the wine stays dry and adds no sweetness to the onion. The limit is its tension: it is a lively, citrusy Brut, and with a light risotto, made with little marrow, its acidity can seem sharper than the dish. At 12,5% vol, serve it at 6-8 °C, in a white wine glass rather than a flute.
Want to learn more about the grape? our guide to Franciacorta
Craft Beer as an Alternative
Bold Helles Beer — Norah's Farm — With risotto alla milanese a beer works if it is soft and not very bitter, because the bitterness of the hops would add to the slightly bitter edge of the saffron. The **Bold Helles by Norah's Farm** is a bottom-fermented German-style blonde brewed in the Veneto foothills, with a delicate taste of malted grain and a round feel on the palate. Malt belongs to the same family as rice and accompanies its sweetness, while the carbonation cleans the butter and marrow from the mouth, as acidity does in wine. The hops, which the brewer rates as low, stay in the background and let the spice speak. The limit is intensity: at 4,8% vol it is a light beer that refreshes more than it accompanies, and against the savoriness of the Grana it stays a step behind the two wines. Serve it at 6-8 °C.
Want to know more about the style? pale craft beers
Variations
- With ossobuco: this is the classic Milanese pairing, and the only case in which the risotto is not a first course but accompanies the main dish. It is served on the same plate, next to the ossobuco with gremolata, and the cooking juices of the meat mingle with the yellow rice.
- Riso al salto: leftover risotto is spread out cold in a nonstick pan with a knob of butter, in a layer one centimeter thick, and cooked over medium heat until a golden, crisp crust forms underneath. It is flipped like a frittata and browned on the other side too. It is the Milanese way of wasting nothing.
- Without marrow: if you cannot find marrow or do not like it, use 40 g of butter for the soffritto instead of the 20 g of butter and the marrow. The risotto comes out lighter and less round, but it is still a good yellow risotto.
- With powdered saffron: a 0,125 g sachet replaces the threads and needs no steeping: dissolve it in a small ladle of hot broth and add it halfway through cooking. The color is more even, the aroma less intense and less nuanced.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the original risotto alla milanese include white wine?
It is an open question even in Milan. The oldest recipes do not mention it, and some cooks avoid it because its acidity shifts the taste of the dish; many recipes today use it to deglaze the rice after toasting. We add it, in a small amount and letting it evaporate completely: it gives a little freshness that balances the fat of the marrow. If you leave it out, wet the rice directly with the first ladle of broth.
Is saffron better in threads or as powder?
**Threads** have a richer, more nuanced aroma, and you can see them in the dish as small red filaments; they should be left to steep in hot broth for at least twenty minutes. **Powder** colors more strongly and dissolves at once, but its aroma is flatter, and the quality depends a great deal on the producer. For four people you need about 0,3 g of threads, or one or two 0,125 g sachets.
Can you make risotto alla milanese without marrow?
Yes. Marrow is part of the traditional recipe and gives roundness and a deeper flavor, but many families have always replaced it with a little extra butter in the soffritto. The risotto comes out lighter. What you should not do is replace the meat broth with vegetable broth, if you want the flavor of Milanese risotto: it is the broth that provides the savory base.
Which rice should you use for risotto alla milanese?
**Carnaroli** is the most widely used: it has a large grain that holds up to cooking and releases plenty of starch, giving a creamy mantecatura with the grain still al dente. **Vialone Nano** also works well; it cooks a couple of minutes faster and gives a softer risotto. Avoid salad rice and parboiled rice, which release no starch and do not bind.
What wine goes with risotto alla milanese?
A **dry white** with good acidity and a discreet aroma: it has to clean the fat of the marrow and butter from the mouth without quarreling with the saffron. A still **Chardonnay** made in steel is the simplest choice; if you want a Lombard wine, choose a **Franciacorta Brut**, whose bubble cuts the fat even better. Avoid tannic reds, which turn bitter with saffron. As an alternative, a lightly hopped Helles-style pale beer.
