How I think Risoto was discovered

Last night, we had friends over for dinner and made a wonderful Truffle butter, chantrell mushroom and shallot Risotto with broth and white wine. It was so good, I ate the leftover for breakfast!

I don't make risotto often, it takes quite a bit of time and fussing compared to rice. I think risotto is Italian for "rice that is stuffed full of liquid over a long period of time".  The rice itself can be cooked like normal rice; 2 cups of water, 1 cup rice boil till done, etc.  But to make risotto, you use the same rice with 5 cups of broth and 1/2 cup of wine and you add it to the rice in 1/2 cup increments, only adding the next 1/2 cup after the first is fully absorbed.  That, my friends, is a lot of liquid going into a little bit of rice!

I wonder who discovered that method?  Probably the wife who cooked the rice with a normal amount of liquid, and when her hubby didn't get home from the orchard on time,  she added more liquid.  When he still didn't come home, she added more.  She did this about five times, is my guess.

On the sixth time, when her hubby still didn't show, she sat down and had a glass of wine, and then another, and waited.  By the time she saw him coming down the lane, the rice was drying out and she was down to 1/2 cup of wine in the bottle - so she dumped that in for one last effort to keep the rice moist and fluffy.

Well!  The rice was quite the hit with the husband!  Or at least he knew better than to say a word about this new-textured creamy concoction (having noticed the empty wine bottle on the table, and the wild look in his bride's eyes). 

He raved about the creamy rice and when he asked her what she called it, she said, in a slightly tipsy fashion "thish is reese-oh too!", meaning to say, "this is rice TOO!"  (she also said a few other words about him being late from the orchard again, but that's another story)

Not wanting to offend his wife, he told all the neighbors about the new rice-oh-too, and the wife started having the neighboring wives over to show them how to make the new dish. After much experimenting with rice, water and wine the recipe became our modern day risotto.

If you know a different version of how this was discovered, please post.  Otherwise, this is my story, and I'm sticking with it!

TTFN!