Brendan O'Connor Darina Allen: “Risotto is the ultimate stand-by dish”
Mar 21, 2026
Darina Allen, chef and founder of Ballymaloe Cookery School, shares her love of simple, quality cooking. She recalls learning risotto from Marcella Hazan. She explains rice varieties, key techniques like coating rice in butter and ladle-by-ladle stock, stirring for creaminess, testing for slight bite, and using leftovers for arancini.
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Learning Risotto From Marcella Hazan
- Darina Allen learned risotto from Marcella Hazan during a cooking week in Italy in the early 1980s.
- The experience revealed Italian cooking's focus on superb ingredients cooked simply and inspired Darina to value Irish ingredients equally.
Irish Produce Deserves Equal Respect
- Italian cuisine's simplicity highlighted that great ingredients matter more than complex technique.
- Darina realised Ireland had equally excellent produce but suffered from an inferiority complex about its food.
Choose The Right Rice Variety
- Invest in proper risotto rice like Arborio, Vialone Nano, or Carnaroli because variety changes texture and pairing.
- Choose Arborio for robustness, Vialone Nano for creamy, rippling Venetian-style seafood risottos, Carnaroli to hold shape.