Vegetable Garden Risotto

Yesterday afternoon, upon returning home, I found my little one still napping.

The perfect occasion to have a nice, quiet tour of my vegetable garden, look at the buds, the flowers, the well being of my newly planted basil...

I was delighted to see a lot of new basil "babies", peeking out of the soil for the first time!

Then I collected a lot of spinach leaves, swiss chard leaves and about 4 or 5 broccoli-rape tops:

These are delicious blanched and then fried with garlic, just like my mother does, but I don't have enough to do that.

So I added them to the spinach and swiss chard leaves and came up with this fantastic Green Risotto!

Soften half an onion in a small bit of olive oil, add a clove of garlic, chopped very tiny, and then, throw in your greens!

I used the swiss chard leaves, the spinach leaves and the broccoli-rape tops.

After less than a minute, add enough water to cover the veggies:

Salt to taste and let simmer for as long as you wish.

Once you're almost ready to eat, blend everything, as if there's no tomorrow!

Then throw in your risotto rice and, just a minute before completion, throw in some goat cheese:

It was a very tiny piece I had in the fridge, our good friend Alex brought that around some days ago.

Cook for another minute, turn once and serve:

The cheese will melt very quickly, that's why you want to add it at the end.

It was really yummy, and I was very pleased and proud to cook my own veggies :)

Risotto alla Milanese

In the last couple of years, I have crowned myself the Queen of Risotto.

I always thought it would have been hard to make those creamy, delicious, wintery risottos I saw in the Italian Restaurants.

Tonight I have proven, once again, it is one of the easiest dishes one could make in about 10 minutes.

To that time, you need to add the actual cooking time of the Arborio rice, which is on average 14 minutes.

Well, it cooks itself, so I'm only going to consider the 10 minutes it takes to:

1. Chop a large white Onion and place in a non stick pan with about two tablespoons of Olive Oil.

Soften the onion and add a spoon of Vegetable Stock paste, then add about half a cup of Water and blend it all. You should get a cream that looks like this:

Then add a few filaments of Saffron. It is very expensive so use only a little.

Here is the little jar my mother sent to me a couple of months back. There is about 200 Euro worth of saffron in it, and it comes from her garden, from the bulbs I bought for her two years ago. At present, the price per gram is higher than that of gold...

Stir in now a couple of tablespoons of Turmeric Powder. It will give the rice the yellow colour and a nice taste. Plus, it's a super good food :)

Now put in about 6 cups of Water.

Stir and bring to the boil, adjust the Salt and let boil for a few minutes.

Add 3 cups of Arborio rice

Stir a bit, cover again and let cook on low to medium heat for 14 minutes, stirring every now and then. 

Once the timer goes off, add a dollop of Butter and grate some Parmesan or Grana Padano cheese on it, stir again and serve. And, more importantly, enjoy!

The doses above will be enough for 4 adults, plus you'll have a bit left over for your lunch box...

Lemony Risotto

Yesterday my husband had an upset stomach. The poor thing!
He ate too much on Tuesday night; we were at a friend's house for an improvised dinner.
Anyway, yesterday morning he asked for risotto to heal his sick belly, and by accident, just surfing the internet, I came across a recipe for Lemon Risotto.
Now, I must say, the recipe was quite complicated, it called for eggs, butter, thyme and other things I did not have ready at home. So I modified it "on the go" while cooking it last night.
I wanted to keep it simple, extremely simple. To heal my sweetheart :)


Ingredients:


2 Lemons, their grated skin and their juice
1 Cup of Rice for each of us
Olive Oil
Salt
1 Small Onion
1.5 litre of vegetable stock


I have no pictures for this recipe, as it went so fast on the hob and on the table, I did not take any pictures.


So, first thing first: softening the onion, finely chopped, in the olive oil, in a large frying pan. I put it on extremely low heat, so I had time to prepare the other ingredients.
I boiled 1.5 litres of water and poured it in a bowl where I had "pulverized" a vegetable stock cube.
I grated the lemons' skins and set aside. I juiced the lemons and set aside.


As soon as the onion is soft, but still white in color, I threw in some rock salt, half of the lemon zest and half of the lemon juice.


At this point, I put in the rice, and let it toast for about 2 minutes, stirring continuously to make sure all the grains would have a chance to come in close contact with the other ingredients.


With a ladle, I added the vegetable stock bit by bit, stirring and making sure the rice was never dry.


When the rice was almost ready, I poured in the rest of the lemon juice and lemon zest.


I let it stay on the hob for another couple of minutes and served.


My son was very impressed, my husband was very impressed. I impressed myself too! Really easy, really inexpensive and really healthy!

Ham and Peppers Risotto

Last night I needed to pop in the shop for a few minutes just to get fruit and yogurt for my son's lunchbox. I ended up with 9 peppers because they were on offer. Once home I decided to try a risotto and this came out:

Ingredients:

1 yellow pepper

10 ham cubes (I used Parma ham)

Olive Oil

1 cup of Arborio rice per person

1 cup of water per person

Parmesan cheese

First of all, as usual with risotto, I made the "base" by quickly frying the pepper cut in small pieces and the ham with a small onion chopped up. Once they started frying, I added a cup of water per person and salt. Do not overdo the salt because ham is salty already, so go easy at first and then taste it after a while to see if there is need for more.

This is the base ready. In a large pan, I placed another small onion, chopped, and let it get soft with some olive oil. I added the rice and toasted it for a few minutes, stirring it continuously.

After toasting the rice, I added the liquid part of the base and let the rice cook for the time needed. Once the rice is cooked, I added on the top the pepper and ham pieces and let the rice cook a bit more with some grated Parmesan cheese.

And this is the rice once in the plate :)

Obviously, without the ham, it's a good recipe for a vegan risotto.

Yum yum..

Easy Risotto - Lentils

Ah, risotto... I remember, as a child, it was one of the few pre-packed things we would eat. From the bag, a wonderful Milanese Risotto would come out. Once in a very long time!!! My mother has never been a fan of ready to eat stuff, it was (and still is) expensive and full of preservatives.

So, I decided to give risotto a try. I saw I have plenty of dried lentils in my stockpile and some pieces of Parma Ham. If you don't have Parma Ham you can use another meat or no meat at all. You'll have a great winter main course, complete with proteins and carbohydrates.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of Arborio rice for each person

1/2 cup of dried lentils for each person

1 can of tomato "passata" or cubes

Olive Oil

1/4 litre of water for each person

1 small onion

(optional Parma Ham cubes)

Ok, so first thing first, is placing a couple of spoonfuls of olive oil in a pot, adding the ham (if using any) and the lentils. Let this fry for only a few seconds and then add the water and the tomato.

This will be the base. So think about all the possibilities this opens up! You can make the base with ANYTHING!!!

When the lentils are almost cooked, place the chopped onion in a large frying pan with the olive oil and let it get soft but not brown.

Then add the rice and "toast it" for a couple of minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon.

At this point, add the liquid part of your base and let the rice cook.

When the rice is almost ready, add the solid part of the base. Then serve with grated Parmesan on top. It's superb on a wintery evening, and makes you feel so full!!!

The good thing about risotto is that, surprise, it cooks itself! What I mean is that I start the base, I check it again in 10-15 minutes and find it is almost done. At this point I put the pan on and in two minutes the rice is in and it's on its way already. No stirring, no worries! In 15 more minutes I add the solid part of the base and put everything on the table.

While I was soooo busy "cooking" I had the chance to sit with my son and chit-chat about his day at school.

Once more: I LOVE RISOTTO!!!