This risotto is so simple to make, and deliciously light enough for summer. Its surprisingly healthy (no cream) and I think you can dress it up with a protein (chorizo or parma ham) or serve it as a side to fish or lamb chops. Even if youre nervous about risottos, this one works a dream.
The recipe is in the January edition of the Woolworths Taste magazine (http://www.taste.co.za ) and Ive made a few adjustments based on my own inspiration. The recipe uses baby/cherry tomatoes, but were currently getting the most insane heirloom tomatoes from our local farmers market and I wanted to make a dish using this.
So I substituted the tomato juice for blitzed heirloom tomatoes, and the baby tomatoes for chopped heirloom tomatoes.
The heirloom tomatoes have a lot more juice than cherry tomatoes so the recipe took a lot longer to cook. There was a lot of moisture to work through. The result was insane though. The rice puffed up nicely and the tomato flavours developed and cooked out enough of the raw taste so the dish was in perfect balance. But add 20 odd mins if you use heirlooms.
If you wanted to add meat (chorizo perhaps?) I would suggest you slice and dice it and fry it off a bit first before addding it to the risotto for a bit of texture. As you finish the cook, the recipe calls for fresh mozzarella to be shredded and buried in the risotto. At this point I removed it from the heat and added lots of black pepper too. After the mozzarella is melted in, you can serve it immediately. I checked my seasoning, but felt the mozzarella salted it enough.
The recipe also calls for Italian parsley, which I used. I do love a Caprese combination, so when I make this again, Ill substitute the parsley for fresh basil.
As far as risottos go, I found this recipe to be quite simple and the dish wasnt as volatile as other risottos Ive made before perhaps due to the extra liquid from the tomatoes. It was a perfect Sunday evening in summer meal for Anton and I with enough leftovers for his lunch today. (Which he insisted on taking :))
