Barlotto, a.k.a. Barley Risotto

"Risotto comes from an Italian word, meaning ‘rice’, referring to a rice dish. So, Barlotto is another way of naming barley, cooked using a risotto cooking method. But it also is one of the culinary methods, used for rice cooking, when rice is first toasted, and then little amounts of hot liquid are added little by little, while vigorously stirring and waiting for it evaporate. Barley, as we know, is usually cooked using a Pilaf culinary technique of rice cooking… In Barlotto dish, however, it turns out just perfect when cooked with a risotto method and, in my opinion, even more flavourful and interesting than a classical risotto. The recipe of Barlotto that I share with you here is not only seriously delicious, but also sustainable (if you live in the region like me, where barley is much more common than Arborio rice) and vegan. As in many classical Italian recipes for risotto, I do not use butter and parmesan in mine, instead I am using frozen olive oil cubes and nutritional yeast (totally optional). Check out my video on YouTube (linked below) to follow the full cooking process."