Obsession: Risotto

As Susan and I have discussed about a thousand times, risotto is surely the nectar of the gods and should be enjoyed as often as possible. It is by far one of the most delicious, versatile, easy dishes to throw together of all time.

I started my love affair with risotto when I saw this recipe in my Everyday Food magazine about 3 years ago and I immediately became obsessed. Once you can make regular risotto, you can add all sorts of tasty stuff to it. Last night I had risotto with orange bell pepper, yellow squash, green beans, and tomato. It was scrumptious. I've also experimented with adding meats, like rotisserie turkey and chicken or pancetta, and about a million different veggies. It's all gold. If you go to the recipe search on Cooking Light's website and put in risotto, it pops out about 50 amazing ideas. But who really needds a recipe? Here are some basic ways to add different ingredients:

• For adding vegetables that need to be cooked a bit first (like when I used the bell peppers, squash, and green beans above), saute them until cooked and then add them to the risotto just as the last of the broth is being absorbed.
• For adding items that don't need to be cooked first, such as tomato, add it when you're stirring the cheese once you've removed it from the heat.
• For adding frozen veggies (I like to use peas), or already cooked meat, stir in as the last of the broth is being absorbed and wait until they've heated to add the cheese.
• For adding raw meats, like bacon or pancetta, add at the beginning, when you are sauteing the onions.
• For adding dried mushrooms (such as porcini...delicious), rehydrate the mushrooms in water overnight, and then use the water in lieu of half of the required broth.
• For making tomato risotto, use tomato juice in lieu of half of the required broth.
• For some basic substitutions that change the taste slightly, use red wine instead of white, use vegatable, turkey or beef broth instead of chicken, substitute feta, mozzarella, or pretty much any other cheese for parmesean, or use leeks or shallots instead of onions.

I like to have risotto as my main dish, with a spinach salad on the side. Blake (because of his whole 'needing meat to constitute a meal' thing) likes to have it as a side dish. It's just so delicious. I must have been a fatty in a former life, because I love food way too much for my own good. :)