This recipe is from a restaurant I am longing to visit after lockdown. It is perfectly light and summery and can be great on its own or as a side. My family ate this as a side with grilled tuna steaks.
Ingredients (serves 6):
- 1 1/2 litres chicken stock
- 1 1/2 kg frozen peas, defrosted
- 2 tbsp fresh mint leaves
- 3 garlic cloves peeled, 2 chopped
- salt and freshly ground pepper
- 200g unsalted butter
- 500g spring onions
- 400g risotto rice
- 2 tbsp basil leaves, torn
- 150ml dry vermouth
- 250g ricotta, lightly beaten
- zest of 2 lemons
- 50g parmesan, grated
I used chicken stock cubes here as no one has time to make actual chicken stock. I needed 2 cubes to make 1 litre of chicken stock instead as I am cooking for a family of four rather than six. The chicken stock is heated and kept on a low heat. Boil the peas, 1 tbsp mint and the whole garlic clove in salted water until tender, for about 3 minutes. Drain, reserving 150ml water.
Then, melt 150g butter in a large pan over a low heat. Add the spring onions and soften. Add the chopped garlic and rice and stir until the rice is coated in butter. (I must confess – due to the fact that I could not find risotto rice in any supermarkets I used paella rice. I’m sure this was a very terrible thing to do but it seemed to work just fine). Add a ladleful of stock and stir, adding another when the rice has absorbed the first. Continue stirring and adding stock for 10 minutes or until the rice is almost al dente.
Add half the peas. In a blender, mash together the remaining peas, 1 tbsp mint and the whole garlic with the reserved water, then add to the risotto. Again, I ran out of time to blend the rest of the peas so attempted to mash them with a potato masher, which I promptly gave up after 10 seconds and just added the half-crushed peas, assuming it’ll just taste the same anyways. Stir in the basil. Add the vermouth, about 2 tbsp ricotta and the remaining 50g butter. Cook briefly to wilt the basil and melt the butter. The rice should be al dente.
Serve with the remaining ricotta over each portion, lemon zest, salt, pepper and parmesan. As I was cooking this to be timed with the tuna steaks – which take no time at all – I panicked when preparing the dish and only added half the remaining ricotta. My mother stopped me from adding it all, stating, thats way too much cheese you do not need all that, but mum thats what the recipe says! I ended up only adding a few extra tablespoons of ricotta and when we began eating I soon realised it was definitely in need of all the ricotta and parmesan. To me, it was more of a spring onion risotto than anything else. Despite this, the dish had a lovely summery taste, light and refreshing and went surprisingly well with the tuna steaks. But please, add all the ricotta you can. Cheese makes everything better anyways.
This recipe I found in The Times, Saturday May 16, and is adapted from the River Café Cook Book Green.
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