Risotto Primavera (Spring Vegetable Risotto)
A good risotto should be nicely thickened and creamy, but still be loose enough to flow out and cover the base of a plate when you serve it. Do try to use fresh stock for this as risotto is a dish that is all about the flavour of a really good stock.
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INGREDIENTS
- 2 bunches spring onions, trimmed
- 150g young carrots, trimmed and scraped clean
- 1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
- 200g sugar snap peas
- 200g freshly shelled petits pois peas
- 90g butter
- 225g risotto rice, such as Arborio or Carnaroli
- 4 tablespoons dry white wine or white vermouth
- 50g Parmesan cheese, finely grated
- The leaves from 15g bunch fresh mint, finely shredded
- 4 tablespoons crème fraîche, to serve
- 25g pea shoots or small watercress sprigs, to garnish
- Salt and freshly ground white pepper
METHOD
Thinly slice the spring onions, separating the white part from the green.
Cut the carrots diagonally into 1cm thick slices and then bring the stock to the boil in a saucepan and keep hot over a low heat.
Drop the sugar snap peas and carrots into a pan of boiling salted water, bring back to the boil and add the shelled peas.
Cook for 1 minute then drain.
Refresh under cold water then pop open and halve the sugar snaps to expose the peas. Set to one side.
Melt 65g of the butter in a pan, add the white spring onions and cook gently for 1 minute.
Add the rice, then stir to coat all the grains in the butter and cook for 1 minute.
Add the white wine and simmer, stirring until it has been absorbed.
Add a large ladleful of hot stock and simmer, stirring until it has all been absorbed before adding another.
Continue like this, stirring all the time, until the rice is creamy but still with a little bite to it – this should take about 25 minutes. You might not need to use all the stock.
After the risotto has been cooking for 23 minutes, stir in the green spring onion tops with the last addition of stock and cook for 2 minutes more.
Stir in the carrots, sugar snap peas, shelled peas and Parmesan cheese and cook for a minute or two to heat them through.
Melt the remaining 25g butter in a small pan and stir in the mint. Stir the mint butter into the risotto, season to taste and spoon onto warmed plates.
Spoon over the crème fraîche, scatter with the pea shoots and serve straight away.
