Risotto

Recently I have been acquainting myself with risotto. I've long eaten it at my Grandmother's house where she wastes nothing, using the remainder of Sunday's roast chicken for her risotto. I've also been treated to the most luxurious of seafood risottos by my boyfriend but shamefully, never have I made it myself. This had to be rectified, particularly as I'm now living in Italy, albeit a long way from Milan. My first attempt was creamy concoction using the basic ingredients of the recipe below but substituting the broccoli for cubed pan fried pork and flavouring the rice with gorgeous lemon-infused ricotta. The result was pleasing but almost overwhelmingly rich. 

This time, having no meat or vegetables in the house other than a bit of old broccoli in the fridge, I was veritably forced to make risotto of broccoli for lunch. This I've long had my doubts about as I had rarely seen broccoli used in any other way except for being a steamed accompaniment for meat in England. However on arriving in Italy I noted with some suspicion that the Italians seem to use it in pasta and rice dishes all the time. So, semi-invented risotto of broccoli it was and delicious  it also was.

Broccoli Risotto

Splash of olive oil

1 garlic clove

1 onion

Some broccoli (stalk an' all)

Salt and pepper

Bit of veg/chicken stock

White wine

Rice

Butter

Grana Padano

In one pan, sautée your garlic and broccoli together in some oil (put the chopped stems in first and later the individual florets as they take less time). Then add a couple of cups of stock, season with salt and pepper and leave to simmer.

In another pan add a chopped onion to the oil and once it has started to become translucent, add the rice and toast it for a bit. Then gradually incorporate however much  wine you deem necessary ( mine was a Sicilian 'rapitala alcamo' which worked well but any will probably do), continuously stirring the rice for about 25 minutes until it reaches your preferred consistency.  I also used the broth from the broccoli pan for this part to add flavour. Then all you have to is add a knob of butter to the rice, a few tablespoons of grated Grana Padano and combine the ingredients of the two pans.  Serve with more grated Padano on top if you're mad for Italian cheese like me.