Risotto should never clump up like this.. . . you’ve got problems.
Listen: I could give this discussion of risotto the typical
sensationalist opening and craft some story about how
everybody knows that to make great risotto, you’ve got to
stir it gently and constantly, adding the hot broth to the rice
one cup at a time and waiting until it’s absorbed before you
add the next. I could do that, but it’d be disingenuous. I
mean, by this late stage in the game, is there anyone in the
world beside hard-line Italians who doesn’t know that you
can make a bowl of luscious, al dente, perfectly mantecato
(loose and creamy) risotto without preheating your broth or