August on a Spoon: Seafood Risotto
Updated: 2 days ago
By Chef Jon Ashton | Published August 1, 2025
Why you'll love it: a quick homemade seafood broth · saffron-gold and creamy · gentle on the seafood · a meditative cook.
A buttery seafood risotto that tastes like Martha’s Vineyard in late summer: salt-kissed, sun-warmed, and slow-cooked with love.
Tested in my kitchen · As seen on TODAY and The Tonight Show · Parade magazine's chef for 10 years · About Chef Jon →
Before you start: New to this? My Kitchen School has a short lesson that will help. Each one takes about five minutes to read. How to cook rice · How to make stock
Seafood Risotto
Serves 4 to 6
Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: about 50 minutes
Level: Medium
Equipment: Saute Pan, Stock Pot, Chef's Knife, Wooden Cutting Board. Also useful: Saucepan and Fine-Mesh Strainer.
Ingredients
For the Quick Seafood Broth
1 onion, unpeeled and quartered through the root
1 carrot, cut into 2-inch chunks
10 black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
½ teaspoon sea salt
Shells from ½ pound shrimp (use the shrimp below)
2 cups good bottled clam juice
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
5½ cups cold water
For the Risotto
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1 small onion, finely diced
A good pinch of salt
2 cups Arborio rice
A pinch of saffron threads, lightly crushed
1 cup dry white wine
½ pound small shrimp (31 to 40 per pound), peeled and deveined, shells reserved for the broth
½ pound bay scallops
½ pound squid, bodies sliced into rings, tentacles left whole
¼ cup fresh basil, roughly torn
Freshly ground black pepper
Lemon wedges, to serve (optional)
Instructions
Make the Broth: Put all the broth ingredients in a large saucepan with the 5½ cups cold water. Bring to a lively boil, then lower the heat and simmer gently for 15 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing on the solids. Discard the solids and keep the broth warm over the lowest heat. Keep the broth just below a simmer the whole time. Cold broth stalls the cooking and makes the rice gluey.
Soften the Onion: Melt 4 tablespoons of the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. When it foams, add the onion and the pinch of salt. Cook, stirring now and then, until soft and translucent, about 9 minutes. You'll know it's right when the onion is soft, translucent and smells sweet, with no browning at the edges.
Toast the Rice and Saffron: Stir in the rice, then crumble in the saffron. Cook for a few minutes, stirring often, until the rice is glossy and the edges look glassy.
Add the Wine and Broth: Pour in the wine and stir gently until it has been absorbed. Add 3 cups of the warm broth. Keep at a gentle simmer, stirring every few minutes, until the pan is nearly dry again, 10 to 12 minutes. Add more broth half a cup at a time, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding the next. Stir often until the rice is tender but still has the faintest resistance at its center, about 10 minutes more. You may not need all the broth. You'll know it's right when a grain bitten in half is tender with the faintest bite at its center, and the risotto flows slowly when you tilt the pan. If the rice is soft but the risotto looks thick and stiff, stir in a splash more warm broth. It keeps thickening as it rests.
Finish with the Seafood: Turn off the heat. Stir in the remaining 1 tablespoon butter with a bit of vigor, then fold in the shrimp, scallops, squid and basil. Cover and let rest for 5 to 6 minutes, until the seafood is just cooked through in the residual heat. If the shrimp are still translucent, set the pan over low heat for a minute. You'll know it's right when the shrimp are pink and opaque all the way through, and the scallops and squid have turned from glassy to milky white.
Serve: Taste, adjust the salt, and grind in a little pepper. Serve immediately in warm, shallow bowls, with lemon wedges and crusty bread.
How to Store
Fridge: refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours and eat within 1 to 2 days.
Reheat: warm gently in a pan with a splash of broth or water, stirring, until hot through.
Key Ingredients
Arborio Rice: Arborio releases its starch slowly as you stir, giving a creamy, saffron-gold risotto with no cream at all.
Quick Seafood Broth: Made from the shrimp shells, clam juice, tomato and aromatics, it gives the rice a deep taste of the sea.
Bottled Clam Juice: Good clam juice adds briny depth to the broth; it is salty, so season the risotto only at the end.
Saffron Threads: Crumbled in with the rice, saffron turns the risotto golden and adds a haunting, hay-like perfume.
Small Shrimp: Small shrimp cook through gently in the residual heat, staying sweet and firm, and their shells flavour the broth.
Bay Scallops and Squid: Both poach in the risotto's own heat until just milky white, so they stay soft and tender rather than rubbery.
Unsalted Butter: Butter softens the onion into a sweet base, and a final tablespoon stirred in off the heat makes the risotto glossy.
Fresh Basil: Torn basil folded in with the seafood adds a bright, summery fragrance.
The Drive, the Risotto, and the Way Summer Says Goodbye
There’s a certain kind of day on the island, where the breeze is soft as muslin and the light tastes like lemon sorbet, that begs for a slow drive with nowhere urgent to be. You should come with me sometime. We’ll leave Edgartown with the roof peeled back and salt dried at the corners of our lips, heading west toward Vineyard Haven as if drawn by instinct.
As we enter Beach Road: to the right, the state beach stretches smooth and golden, rippling like brushstrokes on a watery canvas. To the left, the lagoon: placid, silvery, inscrutable. A hush floats over the water, the kind that makes you exhale more deeply, as if the air itself carries memory.
Chris Stapleton belts out “Tennessee Whiskey,” and I can’t help but join in. His voice, all molasses and gravel, pours through the speakers and catches in your chest like a kind thought long forgotten. I tilt my face into the wind. It smells of warm sunscreen, distant grilling from the beach, and the fading sweetness of August, like peaches left too long in the sun.
Maybe it’s the way the evenings arrive earlier now. Or the way Eleanor lingers in the sun patch just a little longer. I find myself savoring things more (drives, songs, spoonfuls) as if summer might notice and decide to stay.
Jaws Bridge emerges, a silhouette of mischief. Children arc through the sky, limbs akimbo, shrieking mid-flight, while parents glance up from their phones with a curious blend of vigilance and nostalgia. Clammers crouch in the shallows, their backs curved like commas, tending to the quiet rituals of harvest.
Oak Bluffs hums in the near distance. Pier bars echo with laughter and clinking glassware, their scent a glorious fog of malt vinegar, fried clams, and sunscreen applied far too late. Folks grin into their frozen dirty bananas from Donovan’s Reef, slurping like toddlers at a rum-soaked birthday party. It’s vibrant, slightly unhinged, meant for someone else. I drive on. I want something slower. More deliberate. A dish stirred with reverence.
At the Fish Market
At Net Result, the island’s weathered fish market, the scent of brine and kelp hangs in the air like a tide that never fully receded. The floor tiles are perpetually damp, and the display case clouds with chill. I hover for a moment, studying the offerings the way one studies the handwriting in an old letter. The swordfish tempts with its swagger, but it feels destined for clinking cutlery and white tablecloths. I want something spooned. Something humble. Something that exhales.
Shrimp. Scallops. Squid. Mussels. Nothing ornamental, just the kind of catch that smells of tides and moonlight. I cradle the parcel in my lap on the ride home, as one might hold a secret too sacred to speak aloud.
Home, and the Broth
At Happy Days Cottage, Eleanor Rigby greets me at the garden gate, her tail an exuberant metronome. She smells faintly of sun-warmed fur and salt grass, her bark joyous and insistent: You’re home. I noticed. She always insists I enter through the back. The house is shaded and still, infused with the late afternoon’s golden hush. Shoes off. I pour a glass of wine, and the day begins to settle around me like soft linen.
I begin with the broth. I toast the shrimp shells gently, releasing their coppery perfume. An onion, split but unpeeled, joins the pot, along with a weary carrot, a few peppercorns, and tomatoes. The aroma is elemental: salt marsh, driftwood, and something sweet, like sun-warmed seaweed or the skin of a ripe tomato.
The smell takes me back to a tiny seaside café in Cornwall, no bigger than a broom cupboard, its windows misted with salt and memory. I was twelve, sunburnt, sand-scuffed, and endlessly hungry. The chowder came in a chipped blue bowl, served by a woman with sea salt knotted in her hair and hands like driftwood. My granny leaned in, her voice barely louder than the surf, and said, “It’s the sea, boy. That’s what you’re tasting.” I believed her. And she still is right.
The Stirring
In a separate pan, I melt unapologetic tablespoons of butter. It hisses, then sighs. Diced onion follows, surrendering to translucence. Arborio rice tumbles in, opaque, hopeful. I stir slowly, rhythmically, as if coaxing something lost back into the room.
Saffron threads, brittle as ancient paper, crumble between my fingers. Their perfume is haunting: sunlit hay, apricots, linen drying on a Provençal line. When they meet the butter, the air shifts. It always does.
I deglaze with wine, a white with backbone, clean and citrus-kissed. The rice begins to drink. I ladle in the broth slowly, ceremoniously. Steam curls upward, fogging my glasses. Somewhere between ladles, Janis Joplin howls “Piece of My Heart” through the speakers, and her ache finds the same place in my chest that the risotto does. She wasn’t just singing about heartbreak. She was singing about August. Loud, fading, unforgettable.
When the grains have yielded just enough, I add the seafood, extinguish the flame, cover the pot, and step away.
On the Deck
I set two places on the deck: one for Lady Ashton, one for me. Eleanor pads over and rests her chin on my knee. She sniffs. She knows. There’s always hope.
I lift the lid. The risotto glistens, creamy but not cloying, golden from the saffron, studded with seafood. It smells like beach towels on a line, like salt-dusted skin, like goodbyes softened by the promise of another summer.
Each bite is a quiet revelation. The shrimp, sweet and firm. The scallops, cloudlike. The rice, tender but still resilient, catching the butter like a secret it won’t tell. We don’t speak for a moment. Just spoons, and sighs, and the soft clink of spoons against ceramic. It tastes of salt and patience, of the exact moment summer lets go.
This isn’t just risotto. This is a memory held in suspension. The slow exhale of August. The kind of meal that doesn’t just fill you. It restores you. The summer will leave, as it always does. But the salt stays on your skin a while longer. And the risotto? It tastes better the next day. Like most good things.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Adding broth too fast: half a cup at a time gives a creamy, even risotto
Overcooking the seafood: it needs only the residual heat
Salting the broth heavily: the clam juice already brings plenty
Rinsing the rice: you’d wash away the starch that makes it creamy
What to Serve with Seafood Risotto
Crusty bread
A crisp green salad
Roasted asparagus
A chilled glass of Sauvignon Blanc or Vermentino
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I add mussels?
Yes. Steam them separately in a little wine until they open, discard any that stay closed, and fold them in at the end with a splash of their juices.
Can I use store-bought seafood stock?
Yes, though the quick shrimp-shell broth adds wonderful depth in just 15 minutes.
What rice is best for risotto?
Arborio is the most widely available. Carnaroli is also excellent and a little more forgiving.
Why cook the seafood off the heat?
Small shrimp, bay scallops and squid cook in minutes. Gentle residual heat keeps them tender instead of rubbery.
Can I make risotto ahead?
It’s best fresh, but leftovers make wonderful arancini.
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Try my Seafood Paella, Moules Frites, and Shrimp Scampi.
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Tips for Success
Keep the Broth Warm
Cold broth stalls the cooking and makes the rice gluey. Keep it just below a simmer.
Use Small Seafood
Small shrimp and bay scallops cook through in the residual heat. If you use larger ones, cut them into bite-size pieces.
Don’t Rush the Onion
Nine slow minutes in butter builds the sweet base of the dish.
Stop While There’s a Little Bite
The rice keeps softening as it rests with the seafood, so stop when the center still has the faintest resistance.
Taste at the End
Clam juice is salty, so season only once the risotto is finished.
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