A Veneto risotto built around Radicchio Rosso di Treviso, the long-leafed bitter red chicory of the Treviso plain. The shredded radicchio is wilted into the soffritto, the rice is toasted and most often deglazed with red wine, then cooked risotto-style with hot broth added ladle by ladle. Anthocyanins from the leaves stain the rice a dusty mauve, and a final mantecatura of cold butter and grated cheese pulls it into a creamy, faintly bitter primo. It is served on its own, sometimes finished with crisped pancetta or shavings of aged cheese.
A dish of the Trevigiano, the territory around Treviso in the Veneto, where the prized winter chicory Radicchio Rosso di Treviso is grown; the variety has held EU PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) status since 1996. The exact origin of the risotto is unrecorded, as is usual for a regional home dish, but it belongs to the wider Veneto-Lombard risotto tradition that pairs the region's short-grain rice with whatever the season offers — here the bitter forced radicchio of late autumn and winter. The late-harvest «tardivo» type, blanched and forced in dark water sheds to coax out its curled white-ribbed leaves, is the one cooks prize for the pot; the rounder «precoce» is the everyday alternative.
The plate is a muted purplish-rose, not bright — that is the anthocyanin bleeding from the leaves into the starch. Each grain stays distinct but bound in a glossy cream that should flow, not set. The flavor runs sweet-savory from the rice and cheese first, then a clean vegetal bitterness from the radicchio arrives behind it; red wine adds a faint tannic edge. A good one is balanced, the bitterness present but rounded by butter and fat. A bad one is grey and flat, the radicchio overcooked to mush and the bitterness turned harsh and metallic, or the rice cooked stiff with no wave left in it.
Two things drive the dish. First, the color and bitterness: radicchio's red leaves carry anthocyanin pigments that are water-soluble and bleed into the cooking liquid, dyeing the rice; its bitterness comes chiefly from lactucopicrin (also called intybin), a sesquiterpene lactone concentrated in the leaf. Wilting the radicchio in fat and a little acid from the wine tames that bitterness, while butter and cheese coat the bitter compounds and blunt their edge on the palate. Second, the creaminess: a short-grain rice such as Carnaroli or Vialone Nano releases surface amylopectin starch under constant stirring, and the closing mantecatura — beating cold butter and grated Grana Padano into the rice off the heat — emulsifies that starch with fat and broth into the loose, flowing all'onda texture. Add the wine and broth hot and a ladle at a time so the temperature never drops and the grains cook evenly to a firm center.
Variations
Red wine in the soffritto is the most common Treviso treatment, giving a deeper color and a tannic note; many cooks use white wine or none, letting the radicchio's own color carry the dish. Pancetta, speck, or guanciale is often rendered in for salt and depth, and some finish with crisp lardons on top. In the mountains toward Belluno the risotto may be enriched with a local Alpine «malga» cheese; sausage (luganega) is a frequent addition. The Castelfranco radicchio — the pale, speckled «rose» of the same family — gives a milder, prettier but less bitter result. The same radicchio is also famously grilled or worked into pasta sauces across the Veneto.
On the Palate
Where Risotto al Radicchio sits in the Italian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
9 steps · 15 min
- 16 min
Trim and wash the radicchio, then slice it crosswise into thin ribbons, keeping a little aside for garnish if you like.
- 21 min
Keep the broth hot in a separate pot over low heat throughout the cooking.
- 35 min
Melt butter (or warm a little oil) in a wide pan, soften the finely chopped onion gently, then add the rendered pancetta if using.
- 44 min
Add most of the sliced radicchio and cook until it wilts and collapses, a few minutes.
Watch outCook the radicchio down until it fully wilts and collapses — this is where the bitterness mellows and the red bleeds out to color the rice.
- 52 min
Add the rice and toast it in the fat for a minute or two until the edges turn translucent, stirring.
- 63 min
Pour in the red wine and let it bubble away almost completely, scraping the pan.
- 717 min
Add hot broth one ladle at a time, stirring often and waiting for each to be absorbed before the next, for about 16 to 18 minutes until the rice is creamy with a firm center.
Watch outAdd hot broth one ladle at a time, waiting for each to absorb before the next — this steady stirring is what coaxes out the starch for a creamy risotto with a firm center.
- 82 min
Take the pan off the heat, beat in cold butter and grated Grana Padano vigorously until glossy and flowing, and season.
Watch outOff the heat, beat in cold butter and cheese hard until it turns glossy and flows — this final whip (mantecatura) is what makes it creamy and loose, not stiff.
- 92 min
Rest one minute, then serve at once topped with the reserved radicchio or crisp pancetta.
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