Return to Recipes Print Recipe
risotto with game bird
Print Recipe

Risotto with Game Bird

Rich, creamy risotto ranks among the finest of Tuscan dishes, one we crave especially in cooler weather. This soothing bowl of poultry and vegetable-specked risotto, makes a lovely primo piatto or first course.
We adapted the recipe from La Cucina Toscana della Chuisa: Dania’s Favorite Recipes, by Dania Lucherini, one of the beloved members of our Tuscan Women Cooks family. 
A word about the ingredients in this dish. If you visit Tuscany in the fall, you’re likely to see cacciatore (“hunters”) parked along the roadside carrying a brace of birds, rabbits or even a cinghiale (“wild boar”). Tuscan cooking relies on local produce of all kinds including wild game meat and fowl such as piccione (“pigeon” or “dove” in English). Because both breast and legs are dark meat, wild pigeon is richly flavored. (Some even consider it an acquired taste.)  Such wild game is difficult to find in the United States. We recommend using Cornish game hen when making this recipe. The flavor of the dish will be more delicate than Dania’s original but no less delicious. 
Dania only uses breast meat in the actual risotto. She adds the carcass to water to make a stock for the risotto. (She roasts the legs separately to use as garnish for the dish.) You can remove the legs and breast meat from the game hen ahead of time. Then you can prepare the stock so that it is ready when you want to make the risotto.
Course: Rice
Servings: 4

Ingredients

  • 1 Cornish game hen, oven ready
  • 1 small carrot, peeled
  • 2 onions, peeled and sliced
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper, as needed to taste
  • 2 ounces butter
  • 1 small carrot, peeled and finely chopped 
  • 1 celery stalk, finely chopped 
  • ground nutmeg, as needed to taste
  • 7 fluid ounces (1 ½ cups) white wine
  • 1 tomato, skinned, seeded and diced 
  • 9 ounces (1 cup) arborio rice superfino
  • 1 ounce Parmesan cheese, grated
  • Italian parsley, finely chopped

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 400F.
  • Remove the legs and breast meat from the game hen (only the breast filets are used in the risotto). Set it aside.
  • Place the game hen carcasses, small carrot and sliced onions in a saucepan. Cover with 2 to 2 ½ pints of water.  Bring to a boil, season with salt and pepper and maintain at a low simmer. This stock will serve as cooking liquid for making the risotto. 
  • While making the risotto, place the game hen legs on a small baking sheet. Season with salt and pepper and roast them until browned and cooked through.
  • Cut the breast fillets into small pieces and set aside.
  • Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the finely chopped carrot and celery. Sauté for about two minutes, then add the pieces of breast fillet. Cook for 5 more minutes. Season with salt, pepper and some nutmeg. 
  • Stir in the white wine over. When the wine has evaporated and bubbled away, add the diced tomato and the rice. Cook for two minutes. 
  • Now begin to add some of the hot stock a little at a time, stirring continuously, until the rice has reached the “al dente” stage for about 18 minutes. 
  • Take off the heat, carefully mix in the parmesan cheese and parsley. Serve at once. Garnish each serving with a portion of the roasted legs, if desired.