Posted: August 25 2016 in Recipes • Beans & Grains • Rice

The risotto combo of pea, ham and cheese is an Italian classic – and super easy to whip up

Ingredients

  • 1 litre organic chicken or vegetable stock
  • 25 g butter
  • ½ onion , finely chopped
  • 100 g higher-welfare streaky bacon , cut into matchsticks
  • 1 bunch fresh thyme
  • 400 g risotto rice
  • 150 ml white wine
  • 200 g frozen peas
  • sea salt
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • 100 g crumbly goat’s cheese
  • 75 g Parmesan cheese , freshly grated

Method

  1. A classic Italian dish that’s hard to beat.
  2. Heat the stock in a saucepan. In a separate pan, heat the butter, then add the onion, bacon and thyme and fry for about 8 minutes until the onion is soft but not coloured. Add the rice and turn up the heat so it almost fries.
  3. After a minute the rice will look slightly translucent. Add the wine and keep stirring.
  4. Now add a ladle of hot stock and a pinch of salt. Turn down the heat to a fairly high simmer. Keep adding ladlefuls of stock, stirring constantly and allowing each ladleful to be absorbed completely before adding the next.
  5. Chuck the peas into the stock when there are a couple of ladlefuls left, and add them with the stock. Stir until the rice is soft but still has a slight bite, then season with salt and pepper.
  6. Remove from the heat and stir in half the goat’s cheese and the Parmesan. Sprinkle the remaining goat’s cheese over the top and eat as soon as possible while it retains its lovely moist texture.
  7. Tip: Leave out the bacon and use vegetable stock if you want to make a vegetarian risotto.