I love my slow cooker. Love it. And as you might remember, if you’ve been reading since last summer, my trusty slow cooker helped get me through my six kitchenless months of home renovation without completely losing my mind. So when I read that the wonderful Michele Scicolone—author of a dozen and a half or so cookbooks, including Italian Holiday Cooking; 1,000 Italian Recipes; and the best-seller The Sopranos Family Cookbook—had just written a recipe-laden tome about using my favorite device for my favorite cuisine, I had my nose pressed up against the window pane until my postman delivered The Italian Slow Cooker to my door.
I met Michele and her husband, sommelier and Italian wine authority Charles Scicolone, almost a decade ago when I was just starting out as a food writer. I’d managed to finagle my way into co-authoring a book on eating and drinking (Renaissance Guide to Wine and Food Pairing) with my encyclopedic wine expert friend Tony DiDio, and he brought Michele and Charles to an unforgettable lunch at the excellent Pugliese eatery I Trulli to help us with ideas for our chapter on pairing pasta with wine—so I well knew that not only was Michele a prolific cookbook author bursting with ideas, but one who really knew her stuff. When the book arrived last week, I started paging through, eager for more helpings of her culinary wisdom—and, of course, in hopes of finding the perfect mix for making a rich, tomato-y, long-braised meat sauce or a fragrant, restorative soup. But while the book certainly had delicious recipes for these dishes, there were a few things that made me go, “Huh?" Like, making a frittata, or a whole piece of fish, or risotto, or dessert. In the slow-cooker! What happened to that amazing food genius I’d met, I thought to myself as I eyed recipes for ricotta amaretti cheesecake and three different kinds of frittatas. Clearly, she’s lost her mind somewhere over the Atlantic on the way back from her last trip to Italy. A frittata…in a crockpot?!
Oh, me of little faith. Turns out—of course, of course—Scicolone's ideas in The Italian Slow Cooker were spot on. "I don’t have a very big kitchen, so I wanted to make the slow cooker as useful as possible to justify the room it takes up. Polenta is my favorite. Whenever I make it the traditional way, I lose patience with slowly drizzling the cornmeal into the simmering water, and often wind up with a burn or two when the polenta bubbles start to burst and splash me like hot lava as I stir. In the slow cooker, you can even make the polenta ahead and serve it when you are ready without it turning to cement,” she told me. “Frittatas can turn out tough and rubbery if they brown, but in a slow cooker, the heat is gentle and you can relax and not worry about them. It’s great for brunch or an easy supper. You can have everything ready, turn on the cooker when guests arrive, or go about doing other things, and know it will be ready in just about an hour. Fish, too—poach it gently in the low, regulated heat of a slow cooker.”
I heeded her advice last night: I had a 5:30 appointment for my dog at the veterinarian and wanted dinner ready when I got back, so just before I left I prepped all the ingredients for a great sounding recipe for risotto with artichokes, plunked it into the slow-cooker, turned it to high as instructed, and hoped for the best. When I got home an hour later, it was…perfect. The texture was just right—not mushy, but still with just a gentle bit of toothsomeness to the grains of the Arborio rice and flavors that had melded and lifted into the air. It smelled like I’d hired someone to come in and make dinner while I was out. Or, maybe better, that I'd found a way to achieve that often sought-after state of being: Being in two places at once.
Risotto with Artichokes
(serves 6)
Michele’s risotto advice: While you can absolutely put this on and walk away for the hour it needs in the slow-cooker, it's not a dish to leave on for hours at a time. “Cook it just ‘til it’s done, or it will get mushy.”
- 3 Tbs unsalted butter
- 1 Tbs olive oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 2 cups short-grain, such as Arborio
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1 10–12 oz. package frozen artichoke hearts, thawed
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 2 Tbs chopped fresh parsley
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
In a large skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of butter with the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender and golden, about 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic. Add the rice and cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes. Add the wine and cook until the liquid evaporates. Scrape the mixture into the slow cooker. Add the artichokes, broth or water, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and cook on high for about 1 hour, or until the rice is tender. If the rice seems dry, stir in a little warm water. Stir in remaining tablespoon of butter and the cheese. Serve hot.
Amy Zavatto has been writing about wine, spirits, and food for ten years. Her work appears in Imbibe, Gotham, and Every Day with Rachael Ray, among others. She is the author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Bartending and the co-author of The Renaissance Guide to Wine & Food Pairing.
