Scallop Risotto: A Festive Recipe

Nothing beats a creamy risotto for putting together a festive meal with all sorts of ingredients. This Italian specialty is often enriched with mushrooms, asparagus, or seafood. For the holiday season, we invite you to discover an easy recipe for risotto with scallops.

Ingredients

Here are the necessary ingredients to prepare a scallop risotto for 4 people:

300 g of small fresh or frozen scallops.
250 g of risotto rice.
1 onion.
10 cl of dry white wine.
60 g of butter.
1 tablespoon of olive oil.
2 cubes of chicken stock.
50 g of Parmesan or Grana Padano cheese.
Salt and pepper.
Chopped chives.

Thawing of scallops

If you are using frozen scallops to prepare this scallop risotto, thaw them overnight in the refrigerator in a mixture of water and milk.

The next day, carefully drain the scallops in a sieve, then pat them dry with paper towels and set them aside in a cool place.

Preparation of ingredients

Before starting to cook the scallop risotto, begin by preparing the ingredients.

1- Finely chop the onion with a knife or in a food processor.

2- Dissolve the chicken stock cubes in a liter of simmering water.

3- Keep the broth simmering on low heat to maintain it warm throughout the cooking of the risotto.

Cooking Risotto

1- Heat the spoonful of olive oil and 30g of butter in a high heat in a non-stick pan or in a sauté pan.

2- Sauté the chopped onion on high heat, then add the rice to toast it. This important step in the risotto recipe involves quickly frying the rice grains in the butter until they become translucent.

3- Once the rice is well toasted, add the white wine.

4- Wait for the wine to be completely absorbed before adding one to two ladles of hot broth.

5- Throughout the cooking of the scallop risotto, stir the rice and wait for it to absorb all the liquid before adding an additional ladle of broth.

6- Repeat the operation until the rice is fully cooked. The cooking time for risotto is approximately 20 to 25 minutes. The rice should have a soft and creamy consistency.

7- At the end of cooking, add pepper, Parmesan, and chopped chives. Keep the risotto warm while you sauté the scallops.

Cooking Scallops

1- Melt the remaining 30g of butter in a pan over high heat.

2- Sauté the scallops in the butter for only one to two minutes on each side.

Note: The cooking time, of course, depends on the size of the scallops. However, even with large scallops including their coral, they should never be cooked for more than 5 minutes, as this could make them rubbery.