Sunday 3 January 2016

Saturday. 10/10/2015. 'Courgette & Roasted Pepper Risotto.'

This recipe comes from 'Gino's Veg Italia!' by Gino D'Acampo. Page 164.



The  Risotto.


Risotto is already one of our classics at home. I have been doing Risottos since a while being so fond of them and their versatility. You can make them as seasonal as you want or as complicated or as simple as you like. Like Pizza or Pasta, Risotto is a good base which you make sing with ingredients of choice which compliment one another. 


Now a creamy bowl of Risotto may not look the most restaurant'esque' and 'cheffy' yet it is one that can be nonetheless so tasty and comforting. It is home food at its best. The book picture of the dish is nonetheless inviting. 


The Prep.



Our orange mini sweet peppers.
For the ingredients, it features a 300g jar of roasted peppers. Now, I had a glut of peppers this year from my garden, the first year I grew sweet peppers of many shapes, the long and pointy Romanesco and the sweet mini ones. Unfortunately the variety Californian sweet bell peppers didn't do well at all. Although abundant, left all summer outside, the peppers turned red, orange and yellow inside only around the end of October so too late for that recipe unfortunately.  However it gave me the very idea of how to preserve my harvest of peppers to enjoy them for a longer period. 


Our red Peppers. Romanesco and sweet mini.



Home made jar of dried red peppers.



If doing my own roasted peppers jar was fun, it had a bit of a big mishap. Among the harvested peppers, we had one of the last chilli peppers which had not been picked out nor recognised to my crying eyes dilemma. I was in tears for the mistake. However I can only recommend that way of preserving a glut of peppers for those little jars of roasted peppers are handy to jazz up Pasta, Pizza and in this recipe Risotto. The other benefit, from a gardening point of view, is picking up the seeds of successful plants at that stage, in order to grow more next year. The Romanesco plants were a delight of strength and the sweet mini peppers were so bountiful, that they have to be resurrected somehow.



Peppers ready to oven roast.

To do the Risotto, you start by putting 50g of butter in a large wok like pan but with a heavy base along with 4 tbsps of olive oil. Then comes the onions, 2 red onions, to be softened however I did not put the parsley (4tbsps) at that time, because for me it was far too early to do so like in the recipe. Then I put the Arborio rice, but less than 400g, I usually measure it with my hand: Three handfuls are enough for two people and give leftovers. I let the rice to be coated by the butter in the pan before putting 80g of Cubetti di Pancetta. 

Risotto building up.


After the Pancetta another small addition to the recipe is a tbsp of white wine vinegar. I always use a spoon or a couple of spoons of vinegar in my Risottos to be absorb by the grain of rice. It gives it a sweet welcoming sharpness to begin with before I build up the flavour with ladle after ladle of stock.  The choice of vinegar needs to be bespoke or suiting the other ingredients in the Risotto.  Depending on which alcohol you use for the Risotto or/and which stock are usually good cues: white wine vinegar/white wine,  sherry vinegar/sherry etc.
Phantom River Wine.


Once the vinegar is absorbed, I poured the 150ml of dry white wine (Phantom River, Sauvignon Blanc) and let it simmer until it is reduced right down. Afterwards come the vegetable stock, not all of the 1,3 litre of it, just two ladle spoonfuls of it to start of. 





Home made Vegetable Stock.





Then the essence of the operation is pretty much, adding the ingredients little by little, building the flavours doing so, and make them simmer and absorb the stock little by little just as well. You start with a couple of cubed courgettes, after 12 minutes you add the roasted peppers. 

With Risottos, it is important to keep the focus on the pan and whatever it needs, either stirring, adding more stock or more ingredients. I love keeping an eye on them with a nice glass of wine, watching them build up slowly, with the TV in the background. 
Sweet mini peppers and Cayenne chillies.

At this moment in time, to my sheer pleasure, 'Masterchef' is back on with the professionals this time around. I can't help but loving Monica Galetti's facial expressions.  If I was disappointed with the BBC dropping Michel Roux Jr out of that programme or him leaving them for their staunch attitude because of him endorsing a product or an advert ( the all matter, I don't remember well so I could be wrong, therefore don't quote me on it, but it seemed to be a lot of non sense for nothing.) I must admit that taking Marcus Wareing as his replacement worked. Beside I have a book of him somewhere in my culinary crowded bookshelves which I want to try out for a week in the near future. 
Provolone Piccante.



Now, there is an ingredient we could not find which was the Provolone Piccante Cheese, Gino D'Acampo made it sound very nice and we were disappointed not to find the 80 g we needed for the recipe. If you do not know about that particular cheese, I recommend this page to learn all about it:


http://www.cheesemonthclub.com/provolone-piccante.htm

We went for a Gruyére in place of the Provolone this time around, but we are determined to try that Italian cheese in the future.


Le Gruyére.


Parsley.

Once the rice is just about cooked then I did add the 4 Tbsps of Parsley and gave a good stir. Parsley is full of goodness which you do not want to lose by overcooking it. When it is ready I inserted the last of the butter 50g to give that extra creaminess and the cheese.



The Creamy Result. 









The recipe was easy to follow. Like any good Risottos give it plenty of time, attention and patience and the result will be a bowl of comforting loveliness.  This one was absolutely Fantastico.  It did have the high five from both of us and finished the trial week of Gino D'Acampo's recipes beautifully.