Risotto is Italian comfort food which can be served simply by itself, or add in a choice of vegetables, seafood, or meat.

Ingredients

1/2 garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/3 cup of white wine
Select seafood of choice: mussels, shrimp, clams, calamari, or octopus.
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 teaspoon butter
1 Small onion or shallots
Arborio Rice 1 cup
1/2 cup wine
2 cups broth (water and 2 buollion cube)

Directions

Place seafood into a bowl with garlic clove,  salt,  red pepper flakes, white wine. Set aside.

Heat 2 T of olive oil and butter in a well-seasoned, cast iron skillet (or the heaviest, non-stick skillet you have.) Add 1 pat of butter and chopped shallots or onions to the oil and sauté for 2-3 minutes over medium heat.
Add your Arborio rice. For this example, we’ll use 1 cup. This is enough to feed four to six as either a first course (the Italian tradition), or as a main course. Stir the rice well with the onions, butter and oil, because the purpose is to thoroughly “coat” the rice. This helps regulate absorption of the liquid. Add 1/2 cup of dry flavorful white wine.  When the wine is about 3/4’s absorbed, reduce the heat to the lowest setting if you are cooking in an iron skillet, (low medium if in anything else), and ladle in enough stock to cover the smoothed out risotto. When the added liquid level drops about 1/3, re-cover the risotto with more stock. (Continue this process for about 20 minutes.) At about 15 minutes of stirring rice add your add all ingredients from seafood bowl into risotto.

The end of the cooking is critical for the final texture of the dish, so when the rice is mostly tender, but with just a hint of texture to it, and the liquid you have added to this point is mostly absorbed, add the Parmesan.  At this point, stir the risotto to blend in the cheese and remove your finished risotto from the heat.