Saffron risotto with Noto Antica wild crocus

Few weeks ago, a nice family Sunday in the woods around Noto Antica offered a fantastic ingredient for a great risotto: wild saffron.

The fields were blooming with wild crocus and I could not resist the temptation to pick my own saffron. So the whole family helped me out and we brought back home a nice bunch of beautiful purple-blue flowers hiding the tasty golden stems.

The work in the kitchen was easy, I took the stems out and made a simple saffron risotto, prepared using butter, white onion, spumante and, obviously, the saffron stems.
Just before removing it from the heat I added some fresh crocus petals and, before serving, sprinkled with more stems and last year dry flowers.