Red Wine and Dark Chocolate Risotto

I made this risotto only once about a year ago and I'm not sure why as it's really, really, REALLY tasty. And I'm no chocaholic. In fact, I hardly eat chocolate at all. It resulted from a chat with a friend who made her own version that same weekend. We both served it with venison and green beans, in my case venison steaks and pan-fried green beans as shown on the photo.


150 g arborio rice
1 small red onion
1 garlic clove
1/2 celery stick
150 ml full bodied red wine
750 ml vegetable or beef stock
extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
sea salt
30 g parmesan
20 g chocolate with at least 70% cocoa solids
10 g butter (optional)
dried chilis or chili flakes to taste

To serve: chili flakes, grated chocolate and freshly grated parmesan


1. Make the stock and keep hot on a low heat. Grate the parmesan. Coarsely great the chocolate. Grind the whole chilis with a mortar and pestle.

2. Finley chop the onion, garlic and sellerie. Sauté in olive oil for approx. 5 minutes.

3. Add the rice and stirring sauté for 2-3 minutes until the rice becomes slightly transparent. Now, add the wine. Stir over a medium heat until the wine has been absorbed, then add the first ladle of stock. Keep stirring until the liquid has been absorbed. Keep repeating this until the rice is al dente. This takes 15-20 minutes.

4. Remove the risotto from the heat, season with pepper and salt and check the seasoning. Add the parmesan and a little olive oil or butter if used. Cover and leave to rest for about 2 minutes. Lastly, stir in the chocolate and chili. Taste to see if it's hot enough. If necessary add more chili. Serve immediately.

If you're serving this with (venison) steaks and green beans, it helps to have a second pair of hands as you can't stir the risotto and pan-fry the meat and beans at the same time. The second person should make those while you're moving onto step 4. Serve the steaks with some garlic butter.