Risotto alla milanese is Milan's defining rice dish: carnaroli or vialone nano cooked in beef brodo with butter, white wine and saffron threads that stain the grain a deep gold. Bone marrow is the canonical fat.

The risotto giallo or risotto alla milanese is first recorded in a 1574 Milanese marriage banquet and codified in print by Felice Luraschi's Nuovo cuoco milanese economico in 1829. The legend, retold by Pellegrino Artusi in 1891, credits a Belgian glassmaker working on the Duomo's stained windows who tinted a colleague's rice with saffron at his wedding feast. The dish anchors the city's old Lombard cucina, served on its own or under a sliced ossobuco as the canonical riso e oss buss. Trattoria Masuelli San Marco, Trattoria del Nuovo Macello, Ratana and Giannino all pour canonical versions; Cracco serves a fine-dining version with bone marrow shavings.

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