I’ve cooked every Gordon Ramsay risotto I could find across ten of his cookbooks, his MasterClass, his restaurant menus and dozens of Hell’s Kitchen episodes. Some are real recipes he wrote down. Others I built from his techniques because he teaches the components across multiple books without ever combining them. This is everything I’ve learned, organised from cheapest to most expensive so you can pick one that fits your week.
The one thing every risotto in his books has in common is how it finishes. In Home Cooking he calls it “the mantecato”: butter and Parmesan beaten in off the heat, lid on, rest for a few minutes. Get that right and even the simplest version feels like something from a restaurant.
Every Gordon Ramsay Risotto Recipe
These are ordered by total cost, starting with a midweek dinner you can make from the cupboard and ending with the dish that got contestants thrown out of Hell’s Kitchen.
1. Tomato Risotto
£4.65 | 25 min | Easy | Ultimate Cookery Course
No wine, no shallots, no garlic. Just cherry tomatoes cooked in butter, sieved smooth, folded through mascarpone and Parmesan rice. The simplest risotto in any of his books, and the only one that turns into pan-fried risotto cakes the next day. If you’ve never made risotto before, start here.
2. Butternut Squash Risotto
£6.35 | 45 min | Easy | Sunday Lunch
His pumpkin risotto recipe from Sunday Lunch with the swap he suggests himself: “you can use butternut squash, allowing a little longer for it to cook.” Crispy fried sage leaves and sage butter on top make this taste like autumn in a bowl. Available year round, unlike proper cooking pumpkins.
3. Parmesan Risotto
£6.40 | 30 min | Easy | Ultimate Home Cooking technique
The base risotto that every other one builds from, except here the Parmesan is the star. A generous 100g of Parmigiano Reggiano, cold butter beaten in off the heat, and nothing else competing for attention. This is where you learn the mantecato technique before moving on to anything fancier.
4. Pumpkin Risotto
£6.40 | 45 min | Easy | Sunday Lunch + The F Word
The real recipe from Sunday Lunch, plus details from The F Word that aren’t in the book. He sweats the pumpkin without a lid because “I don’t want it watery,” blends it hot so it goes silky, and stirs wild rocket through at the end for a peppery kick. He warns against Halloween pumpkins because they’re “too watery and stringy.”
These first four are all under £7 and easy enough for a weeknight. From here the costs go up because the star ingredients get more interesting.
5. Pea Risotto
£7.75 | 30 min | Easy | 7 cookbooks + restaurant menu
Pea and mint is one of Ramsay’s favourite pairings and it appears across seven of his books. A pea purée turns the rice bright green, whole peas folded in at the end give you bursts of sweetness, and fresh mint ties it together. His restaurants serve a version with coconut oil and homemade mint oil. Frozen peas work perfectly because he says in Bread Street Kitchen they’re “frozen within hours of being picked.”
6. Chicken Risotto
£8 | 40 min | Easy | Built from 6 cookbooks
The trick is poaching the chicken in the same stock that cooks the rice, so the flavour builds from the bottom up. In Sunday Lunch he calls poaching “the perfect way to cook chicken breasts.” Once they’re done you tear them into rough chunks with a fork rather than slicing, which is how he handles chicken across Fit Food and Bread Street Kitchen. The cheapest protein risotto on the list by a good margin.
7. Beetroot Risotto
£8.50 | 55 min | Medium | Ultimate Home Cooking
The only risotto in his books that uses red wine instead of white, which every copycat recipe online gets wrong. Beetroot roasts with balsamic vinegar and sugar for caramelised edges, two-thirds stirred through and the rest dotted on top. On his YouTube video with Tilly he says “risotto should be like lava, it just flows out.” Completely vegetarian, and it stains everything purple, including your hands.
8. Asparagus Risotto
£9.40 | 35 min | Easy | Teaches Cooking II
In Teaches Cooking II he tells readers to save their asparagus stems and “build out a spring vegetable risotto.” The purée turns the rice bright green, blanched tips go in at the end for crunch. Best made between April and June when British asparagus is in season, which he’s firm about in the Cookery Course: “much fuller of flavour and half the price.”
The next three use mushrooms or truffle and sit in that middle ground between a casual dinner and something you’d make for guests.
9. Mushroom Risotto
£9.60 | 35 min | Easy | Make It Easy
A real recipe from Make It Easy, filed under “great fast food.” The secret ingredient most people skip is a teaspoon of ground coriander stirred in with the rice, which lifts the earthiness of the mushrooms. He also builds a mushroom risotto base in the Cookery Course for his arancini recipe, so this one gives you two meals: risotto tonight, fried rice balls tomorrow.
10. Smoked Haddock Risotto
£9.70 | 35 min | Easy | The F Word Season 3 + 4 cookbooks
The most British risotto on this list. From The F Word Season 3, where he makes it with leeks instead of shallots. The haddock poaches in milk, then that smoky poaching milk goes into the stock so the flavour is in every grain. In the Cookery Course he insists on “undyed smoked haddock fillets” and uses the same poaching method for his kedgeree.
11. Prawn Risotto
£12.45 | 35 min | Medium | Built from 6 cookbooks
Pan-seared king prawns with garlic and chilli, cooked separately then placed on top so they stay bouncy instead of going rubbery. In Quick and Delicious he writes that “shellfish in general are the perfect fast food because they take just a few minutes to cook.” The prawns go in last while the risotto rests under a lid.
12. Truffle Risotto
£13.25 | 35 min | Medium | MasterClass + Make It Easy + Quick and Delicious
A wild mushroom base with truffle oil drizzled in at the very end, off the heat. In his MasterClass he teaches that “truffle’s a finishing note. Too much and it kills everything.” One tablespoon is all you need. The bottle costs £5.25 but lasts months, so after the first batch this drops to about £8 total. David Beckham cooked the scallop version of this on Instagram in January 2026 and said “I’ve had a good teacher.”
And then there are the special occasion risottos. These cost more because the seafood does, but they’re still a fraction of what you’d pay at one of his restaurants.
13. Crab Risotto
£14.20 (serves 2) | 35 min | Medium | MasterClass + 6 cookbooks
The most delicate risotto on the list. White and brown crab meat folded in off the heat with lemon zest, chives and a pinch of cayenne. In the Cookery Course Ramsay writes that “it’s the brown meat that packs the real punch,” and in his MasterClass he says “don’t drown crab in lemon. Let the freshness speak.”
14. Scallop Risotto
£18 (serves 2) | 30 min | Medium | Built from 4 cookbooks
His clock-face searing method appears in three different books: place the scallops in a clockwise circle, flip in the same order, so every one gets exactly the same time. In the Cookery Course he writes “any longer than 2 minutes on each side and they’ll go tough.” On Hell’s Kitchen a contestant kept sending up rubbery scallops until Ramsay made him sit in the dining room eating them as punishment.
15. Lobster Risotto
£22 (serves 2) | 40 min | Hard | Built from 6 cookbooks
The Hell’s Kitchen signature dish. On the show he says lobster should feel “like butter” not “bubble gum.” Butter-poached lobster tail folded through creamy Parmesan rice at the last second. About £11 per person, which is still cheaper than ordering it at any of his restaurants. This is the one you make when you want to impress someone and you’re not worried about the receipt.
FAQs
How do you make the perfect risotto according to Gordon Ramsay?
Every risotto in his books follows the same rhythm. Toast the rice in oil until the edges go translucent, which he says stops it going starchy. Deglaze with wine and stir until you can’t smell alcohol. Then ladle in hot stock, one scoop at a time, stirring until each is absorbed before adding the next.
In the Home Cooking “How To Make The Perfect Risotto” guide, he says to finish with cold butter and Parmesan off the heat, then “give the risotto a gentle stir and put the lid back on for a few minutes.” He calls this the mantecato and says it’s “another essential part of the process.” On The F Word he checks the rice by looking for “that little white bit in the centre of the grain. When you can’t see that, forget it, bin it.”
Two rules he repeats in every book: keep the stock hot in a separate pan, and never walk away from the risotto once you’ve started.
Which risotto is on Hell’s Kitchen?
Lobster risotto is the signature appetiser and the one contestants fail at most often. Scallop risotto appears as a separate appetiser, and the scallops are usually what gets sent back rubbery. In one episode a contestant’s risotto was sent back twice because it tasted of raw wine: Ramsay told her “you have to reduce it down” and asked “have you got a drinking problem?”
The lobster risotto was eventually retired from the show menu in Season 18, Episode 2. If you want to recreate the HK experience at home, our lobster risotto and scallop risotto are the two to start with.
What is the best risotto for beginners?
The tomato risotto from the Cookery Course. It’s four ingredients, no wine to deglaze, no shallots to dice, and it’s done in 25 minutes. It also forgives mistakes better than the seafood ones because there’s no protein to overcook. Once you’ve got the feel for how risotto rice behaves, move to the Parmesan risotto which adds wine and shallots back in.
Can you make a seafood risotto from Gordon Ramsay’s recipes?
He teaches each seafood separately rather than mixing them into one dish, which actually makes sense because lobster, scallops, prawns and crab all need different cooking times. Throwing them all in together means something is always overcooked.
If you want a seafood risotto for a dinner party, I’d pick one and do it properly. Prawns for a crowd because they’re the most affordable. Scallops for a date night because they look stunning. Lobster if you’re trying to impress someone you really like.
What is Gordon Ramsay’s green risotto?
Two options depending on the season. The pea risotto is bright vivid green from a pea and mint purée, best in spring and summer. The asparagus risotto is a softer spring green from an asparagus purée, best between April and June when British asparagus is in season. Both use the same technique: purée stirred through for colour, whole pieces folded in for texture.
What rice does Gordon Ramsay use for risotto?
Arborio in every book. He mentions it by name in the Cookery Course, Home Cooking, Make It Easy and Sunday Lunch. Carnaroli works too and holds its shape slightly better, though he never specifies it. In the tomato risotto recipe he also suggests spelt barley “for a British twist” because “it has a lovely nutty flavour,” which is the only time he recommends anything other than rice.
