La petite biscotte Now in Munich…

Pea Risotto with Prosciutto and Parmesan

A few days ago I was browsing Elise’s wonderful blog and her last blog entry was about a pumpkin risotto which actually reminded me that I had never cooked nor eaten a risotto ever before. First I had to find out where to get the special, medium grain rice that you need for risotto, called “Arborio”. While walking around town this morning I actually discovered a charming little Italian grocer. He had exactly the rice I wanted plus some quality Parmesan cheese and prosciutto (12 € all in all, ouch :p).

Once I got home I started cooking immediately and when I got to the “add white wine” stage of the recipe I grabbed the sole bottle of wine I still had standing around (I normally don’t drink alcohol) and I was shocked to discover that it was a super pricey, Christmas present bottle of “Saint Joseph” wine from my father in law… well the stock was already cooking and the onions were in the pan so I couldn’t go to buy a different bottle fast. Well, I opened the bottle and prayed for my father in law never to find out :p The risotto itself was very tasty (it better be tasty at 20€ a portion^^), however I found it a tiny bit stiff so I’m going to add a little more stock next time.

(Recipe adapted from BBC food)

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 50g butter
• 30g prosciutto
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 400g Arborio rice
• 150ml white wine
• 1.5 litres hot chicken or vegetable stock
• 400g frozen peas
• 25g Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper (if needed)

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Preparation

1. Prepare the chicken stock and let it simmer at low temperature.
2. Melt the butter in a large saucepan together with the olive oil until they are foamy.
3. Add the onion and cook them at medium-low heat until they get transparent.
4. Add the prosciutto and cook everything together for about 2 minutes.
5. Turn the heat up and add the rice. Cook for 2 minutes while stirring constantly.
6. Add the white wine and stir until the wine is absorbed by the rice.
7. Turn down the temperature to medium and with a ladle add stock to the rice until it’s just about covered.
8. Cook until the stock has been absorbed. Now stir the rice continuously while adding one ladle of broth at a time, allowing the rice every time to absorb the liquid before adding a new ladle. After about 10 minutes of doing that, add the peas to the rice.
9. Continue until no broth is left and until the rice is al dente (cooking time overall of the rice is 15-20 minutes).
10. Just right before taking the risotto of the heat, add the rest of the butter along with the Parmesan cheese and some salt/pepper if needed.

Serves 4.