Risotto al Radicchio di Treviso

The Veneto understands bitterness in a way Americans do not. Where others would mask it, Venetians celebrate it. Radicchio di Treviso, with its long spears of ruby and white, transforms this risotto into something that lingers in the memory. The color alone stops you: deep wine-red staining the rice, fading to rose at the edges.

This is not the round radicchio you find in supermarket salad mixes. Treviso radicchio is elongated, elegant, with crisp white ribs and leaves the color of old Burgundy. It has been cultivated in the fields around Treviso since the sixteenth century, and the forcing technique that creates its pale heart developed over generations of patient experimentation. Do not substitute. If you cannot find the proper radicchio, make a different risotto.

The bitterness mellows with heat but never disappears. It provides counterpoint to the butter and cheese, cutting through richness the way good wine cuts through fat. What you keep out matters here: no cream, no excessive garlic, no stock cubes. The rice, the radicchio, and the technique. That is all you need.