Red pepper & parmesan risotto

A week after pledging to try my hand at a risotto, I gave it a bash yesterday evening. I didn’t have any fancy mushrooms (or, on inspecting the fridge, any mushrooms at all) so I decided to make do with whatever I could find and at least get the basics of risotto-making right.

After perusing Jamie, Nigel and The Silver Spoon, I managed to come up with my own recipe for a red pepper and parmesan risotto. I chopped and measured and poured and stirred. Then I stirred more, poured more and stirred for another little while.

I was rather astonished at the end of it all to be tucking into a fragrant, creamy risotto, tasty as you like with just enough parmesan in there to give it some welly. I was so delighted that I downed my fork a third of the way in and went to pour myself a nice glass of cold Sauvignon Blanc to wash it down. A comforting, moreish meal on a cold Hallowe’en night.

Red pepper & parmesan risotto (serves 2)

1 onion (finely chopped)
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
1 red papper (finely chopped)
25g butter (and another small knob)
250g arborio rice
80ml white wine
800ml stock (I used half chicken, half veg)
50g parmesan (grated)
Large handful flat leaf parsley (chopped)
Sea salt
Black pepper

Melt the butter. Sweat the onion, garlic and pepper over a fairly low heat for 10-15 mins, stirring every so often.
Add the rice. Turn up the heat and add the wine.
When the wine has evaporated, add 100ml or so of stock. Turn down heat.
Stirring pretty regularly, continue to add slugs of stock until all of it has been absorbed. This takes about 20 minutes.
Stir in the knob of butter, the parmesan and the parsley, keeping back a little parsley to sprinkle on top.
Season with salt and pepper.
Serve.
Enjoy.