risotto | Perfecting Pru

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you had a great weekend.

My weekend was very busy. Time spent at the garden centre, supermarket, baking, walking the dog and a lot of work over at the allotment. Mum and I were up at six on Sunday morning to dig woodchip from a pile that had been left nearby and ship it to the allotment. We made four trips and got so much done. But it left me wondering when I was going to get time to make the Martha Mondays pick.

I love risotto. Love it. Mum often makes a plainish one with onion and we have it with sausages and vegetables for dinner. I love it. And this risotto did not disappoint. Whilst some of my friends think that it is difficult to make, I find that it isn’t difficult just time consuming. I managed to get not one thing done whilst I was making dinner, every few minutes adding more stock to the rice.

I made two changes. I used pancetta slices instead of bacon and I put the peas into the risotto earlier than the recipe called for. I think they would have still been too hard if I had put them in at the end.

I made the full batch and have a container ready for work on Monday. No doubt I will eat it cold – the best way!

~ Pru

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I placed the garlic in a glass of water. It looked so pretty on the windowsill.

Ever since seeing wild garlic in a cookbook last year I have been waiting for spring to arrive so that I could pick some up. It’s not easy to come by. The supermarket doesn’t do it but thankfully a trip to Borough Market had bountiful bouquets of the fragrant leaves and flowers.

Risotto seemed like an ideal way to use it. Nothing too fancy, but it would go perfectly with dinner and highlight the delicateness of the garlic.

Wild garlic is just leaves and flowers, no bulb or cloves. To me, it tastes like a mix between garlic and spring onions. Although mild in taste compared with eating a raw garlic clove, there is no getting away from that fact that it is garlic!

Wild Garlic Risotto

1 cup of risotto rice

1 medium white onion diced

1 tbs olive oil

1tbs butter

1 pint of vegetable stock

1tbs mascarpone cheese

6 wild garlic leaves sliced thinly

Cook the onion in the butter and oil until softened on medium heat. Add the rice and stir so that the rice is coated in the oil. Add half a cup of stock and stir into the rice until absorbed. Continue until you have used all of the stock. Cook the rice until it is al-dente. You don’t want it like mush but still with a bit of a bite. Season. Stir in the tablespoon of mascarpone and then the garlic leaves. Serve.