How did spring pass into summer without me making a single risotto? It’s the ultimate spring comfort food and so perfect with seasonal asparagus and mushrooms. Every magazine and blog worth its salt seems to have featured it, except me. I use Hawaiian pink salt for goodness sake. It’s hard to measure up to that standard, it’s true. That’s awfully fancy salt that a friend gifted me. I probably wouldn’t have bought it for myself. I’m very honoured to have it, but my low salt self-esteem makes me believe I’m not worth it.
Oh right! I remember now why I missed out on spring risotto! It’s because I overdosed on asparagus in 2011 and spent the first half of 2012 binging on Basmati instead of Arborio. In fact, when I made this recipe last week I even almost washed the starch out of the rice without thinking about the fact that that’s what makes the risotto creamy. I would have ended up with a risotto light as air, fluffy, and very un-risotto-like. Never would I have married an Italian with a grandmother skilled with a wooden spoon, had I done that. Fortunately, I slapped my hand away from the tap before the water hit. It seems there’s hope for me yet.
And I think an Italian grandmother would even like me for making this risotto. I didn’t put a single chili pepper in it. It was bright – lemon zest and juice adds a lot. In the end it needed an anchovy or two for some umami depth, but without the fish it was still light and summery, and in my new home with air conditioning I wasn’t scared to heat the whole house up by standing over a simmering pot for 40 minutes. All in all, successful summer risotto.
I really think my future Italian grandmother would like the fact that I used an entire bottle of white wine in this recipe (I used a Quebec wine called La Musicale. It’s a nice wine, but not for this recipe, as it turns out). It was too much and made the risotto too wine-y since the wine wasn’t dry enough, but just use half a bottle of sauvignon blanc or Viognier (drink the other half) – nothing too amazing, but something you’ll want to drink – and you’ll be fine. Then add another 4 cups of chicken or vegetable stock gradually and you’re on your way to in-law, if not marital, bliss.
So I went looking for a good risotto recipe and chose the one for fennel, orange and red onion. I meant to follow the original recipe, but in the end I went with what was in my fridge: lemon instead of orange, amaretto instead of brandy, zucchini and eggplant instead of fennel, and garlic instead of onion (a lot of garlic…).
Ingredients
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp butter (or earth balance, or olive oil)
2 anchovy fillets, diced (from a jar or can, preferably in oil)
1 small Italian eggplant, cut in 1/2″ cubes (skin it and toss the cubes with 2 tbsp salt for 30 minutes, then rinse and pat dry before using if eggplant isn’t fresh from the garden. Dominion, Sobeys, IGA, Save on Foods and Super C are not gardens…)
2 tbsp Disaronno (amaretto), or brandy
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice (or carnaroli), not rinsed!
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp honey
2 cups dry white wine (see above)
4 cups vegetable or chicken stock, in a small saucepan at a gentle simmer
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped (stems are fine too. Just add them to the risotto when you add the zucchini so they have time to soften)
Directions
In a large skillet or saucepan melt the butter over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté for 4 minutes. Don’t let the garlic brown. Reduce the heat and stir more frequently if this starts to happen. Add the diced anchovies, eggplant and amaretto and cook for one minute to evaporate the alcohol.
Add the rice and stir to coat. Then add the lemon zest, lemon juice and honey. Cook and stir until the lemon juice is absorbed and then add the wine.
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