Rice toasted in butter with beef marrow and onion, deglazed with white wine, creamed with saffron and broth to a deep yellow, then finished with butter and grana: risotto alla milanese is served soft, «all'onda», never dry. Some pair it with ossobuco, others prefer it on its own.
Legend places its birth in 1574: among the craftsmen working on the stained-glass windows of the Duomo di Milano was a Flemish glassmaker, nicknamed Valerio di Fiandra for his heavy use of saffron to colour glass yellow. His colleagues teased him, saying he would put saffron in the risotto at his daughter's wedding too: he actually did, and the dish won over the guests.
The first certain document is later: in 1809 a recipe book calls it «riso giallo in padella», and only in 1829 does the name «risotto alla milanese» appear. Since 2007 the Comune di Milano has recognised it with a municipal denomination of origin.
