Friday Night Risotto!
After spending a few days in London eating out every night, it was time to get home and stay there.
Alex and I were having good friends over, and Alex found a fresh sweet pea Risotto recipe she wanted me to make, so let’s get going! This recipe served 4 easily…
Here are your Ingredients:
2 cups fresh peas
2 tablespoons butter – I used a very rich French!
2 large shallots diced
2 cloves garlic minced – ha, who’s kidding who? I used more than a dozen because why not?
2 cups arborio rice
1 cup white wine – I used a Sauvignon Blanc: remember if you want a good dish use good wine – and you have a glass while you cook as well – thanks Duckhorn!!
1 teaspoon thyme
8 cups chicken stock
½ cup parmesan cheese shredded
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon fresh mint
To begin, bring your frozen peas back to life in hot water, or blanche fresh peas for a few minutes to get them partially cooked.
Note that the fresh peas I purchased had a bit of diced carrots included, so I took most of those out, but left a few because it wasn’t going to hurt the flavor at all!
In a medium pot, heat the chicken stock over medium heat until simmering then set aside.
In a large skillet or stockpot, melt the butter over medium heat and sauté the shallots, and garlic for about 5 minutes or until soft and fragrant.
Here’s the process so far: beginning with the peas then the shallots and garlic:
Our friends Kevin and Kelli had fun watching me film these short bits, and there was a boisterous atmosphere in the kitchen, which makes it even more fun!
“Half ‘n Half” Time!
Now the fun part: take one half of the shallot/garlic mixture as well as one half of your peas and blend them into a paste, which will help give the final dish a hint of “green” in the risotto!
Set this aside and go back to the remaining shallot garlic sauce still in the pan.
Add in the rice and toast, stirring frequently, for about 2 minutes. Then add in the white wine to de-glaze the pan and make sure to scrape up any browned bits on the bottom.
Add in ½ cup of the warmed chicken stock and some thyme, and stir the risotto until completely absorbed, then add in another ½ cup and repeat. Continue to add in the stock ½ cup at a time until it’s all absorbed and the rice is fully cooked.
Add the mashed peas you blended and the rest of your whole peas and stir in to the dish.
Here’s how that all looked:
The last step is to shave parmesan over the top and squeeze a fresh lemon in as well, along with the blanched peas, and lemon zest for good measure. Then taste and add salt and pepper if needed.
Garnish the spring pea risotto with fresh herbs – I used mint leaves over the top and it was time to serve!
I loved the flavor of the dish, which is pretty hard to mess up – the ingredients do all the work!
I added some micro greens at the top of the dish, not sure they were needed at all:
Still, our friends seemed to like it, and they laughed at all of the videography that goes into this…I do it for fun and hope you enjoy watching some of them…
One last thing: don’t skimp on the shaved parmesan or the fresh lemon – bot give the dish a nice pop!
I’ve cooked with fresh peas before:
This healthy fresh pea soup with creme fraiche was really good as well – see it here:
If you want something just a bit more decadent, why not eat like Elizabeth Taylor?
The iconic Actress ate a the legendary Chasen’s restaurant in West Hollywood, and loved their chili – so I made it!
See the recipe here:
And if you love chili but want to watch the calories, I’ve got you covered as well:
This recipe is packed with flavor but not calories – see it here:
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Yes, time to cook like Grandma!
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Categories: Bite Eat Swallow, Bite! Eat! Repeat!, Chef memoirs, Cookbooks, Eat This!, Food, Food Travel, Food Writing, Recipes, Restaurants, Wacky Food, World's Wildest Food
Bite! Eat! Repeat! 
It was delicious!
Thank you for reading and I’m glad you enjoyed it…as many do, I obsess over the flavors: it could have have a bit more depth and punch to it, but I will keep trying!
ooooo! I love the idea of the puree! Great idea. plus I love all the garlic…..
Absolutely adore the ‘Nonna’ photo! And so love making risottos tho’ do not remember a purely pea one 🙂 ! Well, a lot less garlic and a tad less wine in mine . . . Americans seem to use garlic a wee bit differently . . . we generally ‘stay’ with one to two cloves 🙂 !