• 200g arborio rice
  • 200g frozen peas or petit pois (or fresh when in season - slightly less)
  • 1l stock - I use Knorr liquid vegetable stock made 2/3 strength.
  • 1 onion
  • a knob of butter (about 20g)
  • 50g of parmesan cheese - grated - plus (if you're like me a bit extra)
  • 2 tbs of chopped parsley
  • 3 big glugs extra virgin olive oil

This is my favourite risotto ever. Which means I’m now a bit lazy about trying out other risottos, so it’s perhaps not challenged for its ‘favourite’ title often enough.

Its from Madhur Jaffrey’s brilliant World Vegetarian, with a few tweaks (mainly More Parmesan).
Serves 4 (or, actually, 3).

Ingredients

Weigh out the peas to let them start to defrost. Run them under the tap if you like.
Warm the oil in a large frying pan or risotto pan. Soften the onion in it for 5 minutes.

Soften_onion

Add the rice to the pan, stir-fry it for 3 – 4 minutes.

Add_rice

Ladle in some stock. If I’m not trying to do other things in the kitchen – or dicking about on Twitter – I do this gradually, one ladle of stock at a time, stirring frequently until it’s absorbed, then adding more. If there are other things to do (like write up a recipe for a blog) I ladle in a lot of stock all at once.

Add_stock

After 15 minutes, add the peas and the remainder of the stock. Simmer and stir for another 10 minutes (or longer) until all of the stock is absorbed. I don’t like risotto to be too runny, but of course that’s personal taste…

Add_peas

Added the chopped parsley, the butter and the parmesan. Stir it in until it is all melted / absorbed / mixed.

Add_parmesanStir_it_all_up

Serve with a bit of extra parmesan on top, ground black pepper, and if you want to be all Masterchef about it, a couple of sprigs of parsley:

Masterchef

Serve with green salad, hot ciabatta and a glass of red Alentejo wine (optional).