Tonight I was in the mood for risotto, Italian comfort food. I had some farm fresh cherry tomatoes, bacon and some frozen peas on hand so this is what happened. I put some butter, I used 1/2 a stick of butter but you could use less if you wish. In a large stock pot I added 1 1/2 cups of arborio rice, a small pinch of salt & pepper and a nice pinch of saffron. Let that brown nicely and add 1/4 cup of white wine to deglaze. The next step comes with practice, keep adding chicken stock in small increments (I added 4 cans) stirring constantly until broken down and creamy, about 1 hour or so. Then I added 1 cup of frozen peas, 10 cherry tomatoes sliced, 4 slices of cooked bacon crumbled, 1 green onion sliced, 1/4 cup of chopped parsley and a nice hand full of grated parmesan. Add a little more chicken stock if needed because risotto should be on the loose side in consistency, I can not stress this enough! All the recipes say to bring the chicken stock to a boil but I find this step unnecessary, I use it straight out of the can. Garnish this anyway you wish, it's so yummy!!!
*Comfort food at its finest
** Dinner party food with a nice app, wine, salad, garlic bread and a good dessert
*** The basic recipe with any add ins, the possibilities are endless
****Hope this makes sense because I'm a little drunk ;)
