One of my favorite vegetarian recipes – creamy risotto with olives, scamorza and cherry tomatoes.
Risotto is very easy to prepare and super quick, so it is perfect for a mid week dinner at home.
I have written all steps, tips and tricks of making a good creamy risotto below.
Hope you will enjoy it!
Ingredients:
160 grams (5.6 oz) risotto rice
About 350 ml. hot vegetable broth
7-8 cherry tomatoes
50-60 grams (2 oz) of black olives
A couple of table spoons olive oil
1 small onion, chopped finely
About 70 grams (2-3 oz) scamorza cheese, shredded
Basil
Thyme
Prepare the broth – you will need about two and a half times the quantity of the rice you are cooking, so if you have 160 grams of rice, you will need about 350-390 ml. of broth. You will have to adjust the quantity of the broth on the go, depending on the type of rice you cook.
Start by cooking the onions in the olive oil on low heat. Cook until translucent and soft. Add the rice and mix with the onions, just enough to heat it, not fry it ( on low heat).
Turn the heat up on medium and gradually start adding the hot broth, part by part as you stir the rice repeatedly – stirring is important because it helps the rice to loose the starch, which creates nice creamy texture of the sauce. Make sure to stir your rice almost constantly but gently because you don’t want to smash it. Let the rice absorb almost all of the part broth you have added, before you add more broth. Keep adding broth until the rice is almost cooked – the rice should be al dente and moist – this means that risotto is usually served with it’s creamy sauce. The creamy sauce comes from the broth and the starch that the rice looses. If you see that your risotto gets dry but it is almost cooked and you have to take it off the heat, then just add enough broth to moisten it and cook it for another minute.
Total time for cooking the rice is about 20-25 minutes, so usually about 3-5 minutes before the rice is ready add the olives, cherry tomatoes, thyme, basil and scamorza cheese. Stir to distribute the cheese evenly.
