courgette and lemon risotto

Thu, Jul 14, 2011

After a longish break from the hobs because of travel (getting married, honeymoon), tonight we really needed to take care of a big organic courgette that had been resting lonely in the fridge for a few days – and since we were also craving for risotto i quickly looked up ideas online. The enligthenment came thanks to PiccolaLayl@ of Profumo di Sicilia (Scent of Sicily, which incidentally is also my other homeland): her courgette and lemon peel recipe (Italian) was the starting point for tonight’s creation. Wife loved this risotto and officially proclaimed it as best ever.

Ingredients (2 portions):

• 150g arborio rice
• 3 shallots, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• oil
• salt
• 100ml white wine
• 1 big courgette, or 2 small ones, diced
• 1 unwaxed lemon
• vegetable stock

Cut strips of the lemon peel (a potato peeler is the quickest way to do this), and further slice them into very thin, long strips using a knife. Further chop a small part (¹⁄₅ or so) of the peel strips into tiny bits.

Slice the courgette into thick rounds and chop each of them in four (or in half if using small courgettes).

Prepare the soffritto (sautée shallots and garlic), add the diced courgette and stir for a couple of minutes, add the part of lemon peel that was chopped in tiny bits, then add rice and toast, deglaze with wine, then start adding the vegetable stock one ladle at a time, adding more as needed, as with any risotto. A couple of minutes before the rice is cooked, add the strips of lemon peel that you have kept aside – just save a few of them if you would like to use them to garnish the risotto when serving in the plates. Keep stirring until the rice is cooked, then leave to rest for a few minutes with the lid on until the risotto is ready.