Whipped Cream Is The Secret Ingredient To Make Risotto Fluffier

Risotto is a high-maintenance comfort food that repays patience and diligence with cheesy bliss. Once you master the art of making a perfect risotto, you'll wonder if there's anything that can touch its fluffy grandeur. Still, if you're of the school that there can never be too much of a good thing, you might be interested to know that you can make a bowl of risotto even more creamy with the addition of one well-whipped ingredient.

For this airy parlor trick, a cook only needs a bit of freshly whipped cream and a spatula to create the most divine risotto texture possible. Instead of using it as a finishing dollop for a dessert, you can fold whipped cream (sans any sugar or sweetener) into the risotto at the conclusion of cooking, creating a dish that's simultaneously rich and lighter-than-air. Think of this as the savory version of a crème diplomat, where whipped cream lightens up a thick custard sauce into a fluffier concoction. All those luscious air bubbles will become enmeshed in the starchy risotto network to create something with a cotton-light consistency. 

To pull off this creamy trick at home, begin with a solid risotto recipe that you know and love. Whether its flavor revolves around mushrooms, roasted corn, or silky, buttered crab, any risotto will welcome the new textural component. Before you start cooking, whip up your cream (roughly 1/2 cup of cream for every 1 cup of arborio rice called for in your risotto recipe), and store it in the fridge while you work on the risotto. Proceed with your risotto recipe as instructed, going all the way to the final steps of folding in the cheese or last aromatics.

At this point, you'll take your fluffy whipped cream and gently fold it into your risotto, being careful not to over-mix, which would knock out the air in your cream. The final step? Adjust your seasoning, as you may need a bit of salt to compensate for the unseasoned cream you've just added. With this last touch, you're now set to serve the most cloud-like risotto possible. Enjoy!