For a lifetime, I have seen seafood risotto eaten only in restaurants, almost always in the summer, in some places on the Roman coast. My mother and my sister, Mirta, are great admirers. For some years now I have preferred to eat more elaborate or innovative dishes at the restaurant and I prepare the risotto myself!

Seafood risotto my way

  • Preparation time: 60 minutes
  • Ingredients for 4 servings
  • Difficulty: Average difficulty recipe

  • Ingredients
  • 12 oz (320 g) of Arborio rice
  • 2 small fish (mullet or weever)
  • 10 oz (300 g) of clean mussels
  • 10 oz (300 g) of clams
  • 1 squid
  • 12 shrimp
  • 2 vine tomatoes
  • Extra virgin olive oil to taste
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • Salt to taste
  • Chopped parsley to taste
  • For the fish stock:
  • The shells and heads of prawns and the bone of a fish
  • Extra virgin olive oil to taste
  • 1/2 glass of white wine
  • 1/2 onion
  • 1/2 celery
  • 1/2 small carrot
  • 1 liter of ice water
  1. Instructions
  2. Prepare the clams. Discard all broken clams. Drain the remaining clams for at least three hours in fresh water. (To do this, place the clams in a colander placed over a plastic bowl with two tablespoons of coarse salt per liter of water.) After the purging time, lightly tap each single clam on a surface or a cutting board in order to select the good ones from those that are only full of sand.
  3. Prepare the mussels. Clean the mussels thoroughly: remove the beard and clean the shell with a steel sponge to remove any impurities and rinse them well in running water.
  4. Put the clean clams and mussels in a pan with a little water. Cook them with a lid on high heat for a few minutes. As soon as they open, put them in a bowl covered with cellophane so as to leave them moist, then place the bowl inside another bowl full of ice water. Shell them, keeping a couple whole aside for decoration, and filter the liquid.
  5. Clean the squid. It should be rinsed under running water, overturning the head bag to eliminate any membrane residue. Eliminate the eyes and beak. Cut the head into small pieces and separate the tentacles.
  6. Clean the shrimp. Remove the head and the carapace; remove the gut and put the covered pulp in the fridge.
  7. Fillet the fish. Put the pulp in the fridge, covered.
  8. With the shells and heads of the shrimps and the heads and spines of the fish, make a fish stock. Cut the onion, carrot, and celery into large pieces and place in a saucepan with a little oil, then add the shells and heads of the prawns and the heads and bones of the fish to toast over high heat. Pour the wine over a high heat and then add one of the chopped tomatoes. Add the ice water and simmer for thirty minutes. Filter with a coulis before use.
  9. In a pan, sauté with oil and a clove of garlic. Add the squid and tomato, cut into small pieces. Continue cooking for about twenty minutes covered over low heat, adding a little water if needed. Remove the garlic clove.
  10. Pour the rice into the squid and continue cooking by adding ladles of hot fish stock and the filtered shellfish juice when the risotto dries too much.
  11. When almost cooked, turn off the heat and add the prawns, filleted fish, mussels, and shelled clams. Stir in a little oil.
  12. Let the risotto rest, covered, for a few minutes.
  13. Season with salt if necessary and serve with chopped parsley.

Tips to ensure the success of the dish:

  • If you prefer to use a more valuable fish, you can use redfish or gurnard.
  • When cooking mussels and clams together, it is advisable to remove the mollusks a few at a time as soon as they are open so as to not overcook them.