Easy and foolproof Risotto - Bacon and Leek

I first time I tasted risotto was about 16 years ago.  I was vegetarian at the time and a friend made me porcini risotto.  I absolutely loved it!   I took to ordering it in restaurants because often it was the only decent vegetarian option on the menu but never tried to make it for myself.

A couple of years later I started going out with an Italian.  His family lived in a town outside Milan and owned a Deli.  I literally had the contents of an entire Italian Deli at my disposal but because I was a devout veggie I didn't touch any of the lovely cured meats, homemade ravioli and the like.  Now I must tell you that I wasn't a veggie because I disliked meat.  Oh no, I bloody loved the stuff - in fact salami is in my top ten foods.  I was the only veggie I know who loves meat and spent 12 years denying myself the pleasure of it. 

Each time I visited Italy it was an exercise in deprivation and frustration.  His family thought I was odd anyway.  I had very short hair - think Dolores O'Riordan from the Cranberries - and my shoe choice of the time was Vegan Doc Martens.  This did not sit well with the fur-wearing, stilleto teetering, long "blonde" haired clones.  Anyway I digress...........


The next time I tasted risotto my "father-in-law", who was a wonderful cook, make me a totally plain risotto topped with shavings of truffle.  Oh my god - it was sensational!  Truffle is in my food top five.  So my love affair with risotto began and it's never ended.  The recipe below is one of my favourites.

As to my rather long foray into vegetarianism........

Eventually it all got too much for me and I had to give in.  Nowadays I eat meat with gay abandon and make up for all those years of ordering crappy vegetarian options in swish restaurants.  Nowadays I buy organic and am still concerned about animal welfare.  To all those real life-long veggies I'm a heretic but what can I say ...... I'm weak.

[Serves 4]

300g Carnaroli or Arborio risotto rice

3 x generous knobs of butter and a tiny splash of olive oil

1 large white onion or two medium

2 cloves of minced garlic

250ml of dry white wine – room temperature is better than cold

1 litre of chicken stock [I use one and a half Knorr  chicken stock cubes]

3 large or 4 medium leeks – sliced approx. 3 mm thick

1 packet of smoked bacon [6 slices] – grilled until well done and with the fat cut off

1 heaped cup (250ml] of grated parmesan cheese – plus extra for serving

Freshly ground black pepper

Finely chopped parsley to garnish

Method:

Finely chop the onion and mince the garlic

Put into heavy bottom pot with first knob of butter and add a small splash of olive oil

Saute until transparent over a very low heat – approx 10 minutes – stirring very few minutes

In the meantime ……

Grill bacon until well done and the fat is quite brown.  Cut off fat using scissors and chop or cut into small-ish bit size pieces – set aside

Saute the sliced leek with the second knob of butter - for now more than a few minutes, they should still be a little crunchy as they will continue to cook once added to the risotto

If using a stock cube make up stock with boiling water , if using fresh stock bring to boil, either in microwave or in a separate pot on the stove

Add rice to onion and garlic mixture and turn up heat from low to medium – stir rice for 2 minutes until well coated with butter and rice is just starting to turn transparent

Set a timer for 15 minutes – then immediately

Add wine and stir rice continuously until the wine has been absorbed by the rice – heat should be medium, so that the rice bubbles nicely but not vigorously

Add a generous splash of stock [about a soup ladle full] and stir until almost completely absorbed by the rice

Continue in this way until the timer goes off – stirring all the time

Now do the bite test – the rice should have a little bit of bite in the middle and also remember the rice will continue to cook once it comes off the heat and you stir in the bacon and leeks

Stir in the bacon and leeks and once combined add the grated parmesan cheese

Add a generous grinding of black pepper

Stir a few times to combine and then add the final knob of butter

Stir a few times and leave to rest for two minutes

Serve in bowls with a generous sprinkling of parmesan cheese and a sprinkling of parsley

Cooks tips:

I prefer to add all the wine first, as I feel this give the rice a nice flavour

I prefer to use smoked bacon because I love the smokiness and it goes really well with leeks


I don't add extra salt because the stock cube and parmesan cheese make it salty enough for my taste

If you've ordered risotto in a number of restaurants you'll know that everyone seems to have their own interpretation of how dry or wet a risotto should be.  Personally I like mine not to be stodgy.  Kind of like if you stood a teaspoon up in a pile of it, it would fall over slowly as opposed to standing up straight.

Remember, when you add the parmesan to the rice at the very end it causes the mixture to stiffen - so it's wise to have it runnier than you'd ideally like before you add the parmesan

Adding a generous knob of butter at the end gives the risotto a silken texture.  The key is to only stir it a few times [some purists say three times in a clockwise motion] so as not to overmix it and potentially ruin the texture

Risotto purists believe in a resting period - I'm not 100 sure why?  Maybe someone can enlighten me?    I imagine that the italians know what they're talking about when it comes to this dish - so I just do it ;-)

Arrabiata Pasta Sauce with Peppers

Pixie loves peppers and Pixie loves pasta and Pixie loves chilli.  So this my Pixie Pleasing creation - a cross between pepperonata and arrabiata sauce.  I've christened it Pepperbiata.

The chopping of the peppers can be a faff but this recipe makes a big batch.  So for the two of us we get three generous servings out of one lot of tedious chopping.

Serves 6

• 2 red peppers – chopped into stubby matchsticks
• 2 yellow peppers - chopped into stubby matchsticks
• 2 orange peppers - chopped into stubby matchsticks
• 1 very large or 2 medium white onions – finely chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic -  minced
• 2 -3 red chillis – finely chopped  [pips included] – not the fiery Bird’s Eye chilli that you’d use in Indian curry but the milder variety found in UK supermarkets which are actually raw Jalapeno chillis
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil – this may seem like a lot but it is integral to the flavour and texture of the sauce
• 1 bottle passata [approx. 690g - sieved tomatoes]
• 2 x 400g tins  of chopped tomatoes
• Heaped tablespoon of sugar
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 x heaped teaspoon of cornflour dissolved in 2 tbsp of water
• Freshly grated parmesan cheese
• Torn basil leaves to garnish

·        Gently fry onions and garlic in olive oil until transparent – approx. 10 minutes

·        Add chilli and fry for another minute

·        Add peppers - turn up heat and fry for about 5 minutes, stirring continuously

·        Add passata and tins of tomatoes and stir everything together

·        Add sugar, salt and pepper and stir

·        Once bubbling turn the heat down low and simmer for 30 – 40 minutes

·        Add the cornflour mixture and stir through and simmer for another 5 minutes

·        Serve on the pasta of your choice and sprinkle liberally with parmesan cheese

Cooks notes: 

·        the idea of adding the cornflour is to prevent the sauce from separating once mixed into the pasta.  I really don’t like any watery residue on the plate or bowl.  It also helps to give the sauce a silkier consistency

·        this sauce tastes even better the next day or even up to 3 days later as the flavours have time to meld together

·        this sauce freezes really well

Homemade Basil Pesto

Usually when I buy store bought herb pots they perform dismally and limp to their death in a few weeks, no matter how much I tend them.

Recently I bought a pot of basil that thrived and turned into a bush - it must like my kitchen windowsill.  It grew so well that I decided that I might just have enough leaves to make some pesto.  A first for me.  I found a recipe in Delicious Magazine which suited the amount of basil I had.

Ingredients

1. 1 small garlic clove
2. Pinch of sea salt
3. 25g pine nuts, very lightly toasted
4. 50g fresh basil leaves (this is the amount of picked leaves you get from a large pot from the supermarket)
5. 25g Parmesan, finely grated
6. Juice of ½ lemon
7. 125ml extra-virgin olive oil

Method

METHOD 1

1. In a small food processor
2. Put the garlic and a pinch of sea salt in the bowl and pulse, then add the pine nuts and pulse again until roughly chopped (be careful not to over-process). Add the basil and pulse carefully until it is well mixed but still very textured. Turn into a bowl and stir in the Parmesan and lemon juice. Pour in the olive oil, mixing to a juicy paste. Season to taste.

METHOD 2

1. In a pestle and mortar
2. Put the garlic and sea salt in a mortar and pound with the pestle until smooth. Add the pine nuts and pound until they are roughly crushed. Add the basil and continue to pound and mash, bruising the leaves, until it starts to form a paste. Turn into a bowl and stir through the Parmesan and lemon juice. Pour in the oil and mix to a juicy paste, seasoning as you go.

Chef's tip

To use:

1. As well as stirring it into pasta, add a teaspoonful to a bowl of minestrone soup for an instant flavour boost.

2. Spread onto griddled bruschetta and top with fresh ricotta for a tasty starter.

3. Slather over chicken breasts or a piece of white fish, wrap in prosciutto and bake for a simple supper.

4. When cooking mussels, add a couple of teaspoons to the broth.

5. Stir into crème fraîche or mascarpone and use as a dip with spring veg.

6. It’s perfect with simple antipasti such as mozzarella, tomatoes, prosciutto and crusty bread.

7. Stir it into mashed potato for a great flavour.

To store:  Put the pesto in a sterilised jar and cover the surface of the pesto with a layer of olive oil. Top with a lid or cling film and keep in the fridge for up to 1 week.

To freeze: Leave out the Parmesan, spoon into ice-cube trays and open-freeze. Tip into freezer bags and keep frozen for up to 3 months. To use, defrost the required amount and stir through some Parmesan.

I used the food processor method and this is the result:

Quick and easy Puttanesca Sauce that delivers big flavours

I call this pasta sauce the “Thai food of the Italians”. This is because it hits all the tastebuds like a steam train - salty, sweet, sour and hot. Even if you don’t like anchovies, I beg you to leave them in this sauce. If you use a moderate amount, like my 5 in the recipe below, you won’t actually taste much fishiness, however, the saltiness and meatiness just adds an extra dimension to the sauce. Using fresh herbs in the recipe scales new heights of savouriness.

If you can’t get your hands on passata or cherry tomatoes don’t worry you could just use two tins of diced/chopped tomatoes. The end result won’t be much different. I like to use cherry tomatoes because I find their round plumpness is pleasing to the eye and when you bite into them you get some extra sweetness.

This “saucy” sauce has a few legends surrounding it and there are a gazillion recipes out there using massively differing amounts of the standard ingredients – this is my version that I’ve tinkered together and perfected over time.  Give this forgiving sauce a bash and you'll wonder how you lived without it.

• 6 medium or 4 large fresh sages leaves finely chopped

• Stalk of fresh rosemary taken off stem and finely chopped

• 3 large cloves of garlic finely minced

• 1 tsp of dried oregano

• Good size pinch of chilli flakes or a medium red chilli finely dices including seeds

• 4 tablespoons of olive oil

• 5 anchovy fillets finely chopped [or more to taste]

• 1 cup of passata [sieved tomatoes]

• 1 400g tin of cherry tomatoes in tomato sauce [the best you can find]

• 1 tbsp of sugar

• Pepper to taste

• 1 heaped cup of black olives, cut in half

• ¾ cup of capers, salted best but in brine will also do

• Fresh parsley finely chopped for sprinkling on to serve


Method:

Heat the olive oil over a low heat

Add the sage, rosemary and garlic and cook very gently for 5 minutes [the garlic mustn’t get any colour at all but should cook enough, so it doesn’t taste rawAdd the chilli flakes and oregano and cook for a minute

Add the anchovies and cook for a minute

Add the passata, olives, capers and stir together

Add the sugar

Add the tin of cherry tomatoes

Season with pepper [I don’t use salt, as the ingredients are salty enough]

Simmer  over a very low heat for 5 minutes [don't make the mistake of letting this sauce simmer for too long, it's not meant to cook for ages because the idea behind this sauce is for it to have a fresh and not stewed taste]

Tip - I find that tomato based sauces which arent' cooked for  long enough to reduce will often  have watery tomato juice separating underneath the pasta.  To avoid this dissolve one heaped teaspoon of cornflour powder in a little water and stir into the sauce a minute before serving.  The result is a slightly thicker sauce that doesn't separate whatsoever and it doesn't affect the taste of the sauce at all.

Sprinkle on fresh parsley to serve


Serve on pasta of your choice. Most popular seems to be spaghetti or penne.
Serves: 2 large portions, or 4 as a starter

Photo courtesy of Flickr - dboy CCL

Tasty spaghetti and meatballs

I've devised a tasty and easy basil and tomato sauce into which I plop fried meatballs.  I confess that  I "cheat" by using ready-made beef meatballs from Sainsburys or ready-made Swedish meatballs, which are a mixture of beef and pork and slightly smaller.  I used to make my own meatballs they take ages and taste-wise wasn't hugely different.  It also meant that it became a weekend recipe because it would take too long to do after a day at work.

This recipe makes four large or six medium servings:

3 tbsp olive oil
1 very large or two medium onions
2 cloves of garlic
Half a teaspoon of chilli flakes or one large fresh red chilli
1 bottle of pasatta
2 [400g] cans of chopped tomatoes
1 large bunch of fresh basil leaves
3 tbsp sugar
salt and freshly ground pepper
24 [2 packs of 12] meatballs
2 tsp cornflour mixed with 3 tbsp water
Freshly grated parmesan cheese to sprinkle on just before eating

• In a shallow non-stick frying pan slicked with a little oil brown the meatballs in batches - I have a large frying pan so do them in 2 batches.  Transfer on to kitchen roll to absorb any excess oil
• Heat the olive oil to medium heat in a large, heavy based pot
• Finely chop the onions
• Finely crush or chop the garlic
• Add to the onions and garlic to the oil
• Bring them to sizzling point, stirring all the time and then turn down the heat to low
• Allow the onions and garlic to gently sweat for at least 10 minutes, stirring occasionally and making sure they don't brown whatsoever
• Add the chilli and cook for another few minutes
• Add the two tins of tomatoes and stir
• Add the bottle of passata and stir
• Bring to a bubbling boil, stirring all the time
• Add the sugar and season well with salt and freshly ground pepper
• Pluck the basil leaves off the plant or stem and roll between your fingers to release the oils and then tear into small pieces and add to the sauce
• Add the meatballs a simmer for 15 -20 mins - infusing the sauce with a lovely meaty flavour
• 5 minutes before serving dissolve the cornflour in the water in a small glass or mug and stir into the sauce.  This ensures a lovely silky consistency and prevents watery tomato juice accumulating under the pasta

Serve sauce and meatballs on spaghetti or pasta of your choice.  Garnish with basil leaves and sprinke with freshly grated parmesan cheese to taste.

Tastes even better the next day.
Freezes well for up to 3 months.

Photo courtesy of Flickr CCL - The Culinary Geek

Italian Sausage Stew - my prize-winning recipe

Yesterday we made the sad decision to cancel our holiday to visit family in South Africa.  Thank you very much furious Mr Volcano living in Iceland. 

This morning I checked my e-mail and I found a reason to smile.  My Italian Sausage Stew recipe has won the prize for best stew recipe on FoodsForFriendsYeah!

I've won a Julie and Julia DVD and cookbook.  I've been dying to see this film and I can certainly do with Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Food For Friends Yeah is a well designed, friendly and informative foodie community started by two foodie-friends.

Thanks so much - you've made my day!!!

Here is my prize-winning recipe:

This great stew is quick and easy to make. You can get in the door, chuck it all in one pot in 30 minutes, sit down with a glass of wine and 30 minutes later be tucking into a flavour-packed, comforting, rib-sticking stew. To make this gluten free I use gluten free sausages and Doves plain gluten free flour.

Serves 6

2 packs of pork sausages cut into meatball size pieces

2 smoked gammon steaks [approx 400g], cut into smallish lardon size cubes [ I also use a pack of smoked bacon cut into small pieces if I can't find any organic gammon steaks - as I only eat "happy" pigs]

2 tbsp olive oil

2 medium or 1 very large onion diced

2 cloves of garlic minced or finely chopped

250ml dry red wine

500ml of beef stock

100g of tomato paste

200g of pitted calamata olives

3 large for 4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks

3 large bay leaves

2 heaped tbsp of plain flour

salt and pepper to taste

Equipment:

Large heavy bottomed saucepan or stove top friendly casserole dish

Method:

Fry the onion and garlic in olive oil over a moderate heat until transparent. Add the carrot and stir fry for a few more minutes.


Turn up heat and add the sausages and gammon. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Stir fry until meat is sealed.


Sprinkle the flour over contents of pot and stir for 1 minute. Add the red wine, stir and let the alcohol evaporate. Add tomato paste and stir some more to coat.

Add the beef stock, olives and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and then either turn the heat down and simmer for 30 minutes or if you’re using a casserole dish put into the oven at 160°C for 30 minutes.


Delicious served on mashed potato, polenta or brown rice along with some spring greens or broccoli on the side.