With a gleaming Kuhn-Rikon pressure cooker in hand, we were ready to try cooking risotto like a Venetian. There were just a couple of problems. Nobody grows baby artichokes on the Boston Harbor Islands (or anywhere else nearby), and Anna Maria Andreola had been, shall we say, extremely casual about measurements when she’d shown us the basic technique in Venice.

So we experimented, using the simplest Italian rice dish of all, risotto milanese. (Basic recipe for four servings: Saute a medium chopped onion in 1/4 cup of olive oil until translucent, while infusing 3 1/2 cups of chicken stock with 1/4 teaspoon of saffron. Add 2 cups arborio rice to the onion pan and toast rice until opaque. Add 1/2 cup white wine and stir over high heat until wine disappears. Ladle in the chicken stock, stirring all the while. When rice is cooked but al dente, stir in half a stick of butter and 1/2 cup of Parmagiano-Reggiano.)

Using the traditional proportions in the pressure cooker meant that we had saffron-flavored chicken-rice soup. Not a good start. Eventually we discovered the right proportions. Keep the wine at 1/2 cup, but cut the stock to 2 1/2 cups.

Good, but not perfect. The lower volume of stock reduced the concentration of flavor. Our solution was to make a very strong homemade stock from thighs and legs, leaving on some of the skin to infuse the extra collagen that gives a richer mouth-feel.