I also have brodo in the freezer for my frozen stuffed pasta and risotto. However, when I am making risotto, I use part chicken stock and water, much more stock than water, plus a little white wine. I just made risotto recently when I had nothing in the freezer and with Swanson's, the results were disappointing.

Try a few spoonfuls of ragu de nobili--or di rigaglie* di pollo--in risotto and then get back to me about your position on "chicken risotto".

I'm no blooming Olive Garden, sir.

* or simply fegatini

Given the quantity of stock stirred into a risotto, the thought of using store-bought stuff is beyond nasty. It's apostasy. I'm sure its a felony in Italy, if not grounds for exile. High-end, low-end, cubes: it just tastes bad. Or not good, anyway. I use all that stuff when time is short and the stock is a relatively modest part of a Wednesday night dinner, but I'd rather lick asphalt than have a risotto made with commercial stock. Ewwww.

When we do mushroom risotto, we make a mushroom stock.

True. Marcella Hazan has a good recipe for risotto-worthy broth. Also, I've found that Madeleine Kamen's system of "primary" and "secondary" veal stock (the latter approximating a "rémuage" or "second pressing" of the "primary" stock's ingredients) is useful here. The "secondary" stock makes a very fine risotto stock when diluted by about half.

Look, I'm not advocating using commercial broth for risotto, but I am saying that given the right flavor base, good-quality commercial broth, and plenty of good butter and parmigiano, I can make a perfectly pleasant risotto. As good as with home-made broth? No, of course not. But when risotto sounds irresistible, and there's no chicken stock in the freezer, I (and not only I) can make a nice dish. Felony, forsooth.

Thank you, l'Omo Chi Aspetta. Sometimes even a bluestocking appreciates chivalry.

Hersch, I am sure you meant no offense. It's just that sometimes when we get up on our orange crates to pontificate, we sound a little ridiculous. That plural pronoun is inclusive since I know I get huffy, too, about these trivial little culinary matters.

As for relevant voices, I checked Marcella's original publications first, and in the early 1980s, for a pioneer, it was important to stop Americans from relying on chicken boullion cubes, a staple in the homes I grew up in and in the first Italian kitchens I entered where a "dado di Star" went into everything. Therefore, she publishes a "cucina povera" type of meat broth using chicken bones and leftover scraps as any frugal home cook in Italy would. If you don't have any around, she's fine with your using CANNED broth, an improvement on those gummy, salty cubes. Lidia Matticchio Bastianich started publishing later and tells her readers that a good stock is necessary in her restaurants (she mixes turkey & chicken), but they could use low-sodium chicken broth if they don't make one of the two stock recipes she supplies in The Italian-American Kitchen, the book in which she tries to present cucina diaspora as more than just red sauce and thick-crust, soupy pizza.

Last night, I finally got around to reading Tom Sietsema's review of Bebo in last week's Sunday magazine.

When I played wait staff to Fabio Trabocchi's demo at the farmers's market, the stock was not house-made. It came from a restaurant supplier in heavy plastic zip-lock bags. Nonetheless, its flavor came through in a simple regional dish whose pronounced flavors are cheese, stock, lemon zest and cinnamon.

Ridiculous I am ready to plead guilty to, but decadent? I reject decadent!

As to Marcella, in her later books she basically bans the use of chicken stock or broth in risotto (well, at least she says she won't use them any more). She never really makes clear (to me) what she finds objectionable, but uses words like "too pungent" and "sharp" (I think; I'm working from memory). She says to use a meat broth made with beef and veal, with little or no bone.

For the record, I edited out the word "decadent" before cjsandler began transporting a section of this thread to a new discussion on risotto. Hyperbole, perhaps, but we do live in Washington, D.C. where we are keenly aware of many things of far greater consequence. I think a smily face is in order here, too, . Just wish it came with big, stick-out ears.