Baked spring risotto w homemade pesto by Steph Taylor

Prep Time: 15

Cook Time: 30

Total Time: 45

Servings: 4

Lemony, fresh and rich risotto with asparagus. The pesto is an added extra but gives it some zing!

Print Recipe

Servings 4

Equipment

Oven-proof frying pan
Saucepan
Pre-heated oven at 180FAN / 200c

Ingredients

Risotto

250 g Arborio rice
1 onion diced
1 leek sliced
2 cloves garlic chopped
150 ml white wine
1000 ml vegetable stock use 2 stock cubes
1 knob butter
30 ml olive oil
6 asparagus cut into thirds
100 g peas about 1 cup
50 g watercress
3 bay leaves optional
2 sprigs mint leaves
100 g parmesan cheese grated Or pecorino
0.5 lemon zest and juice

Homemade Pesto – optional

30 g fresh basil
1 cloves garlic
40 g parmesan cheese grated, or pecorino
2 tbsp toasted almonds
0.5 lemon juice
1 tsp honey
30 ml olive oil

Instructions

Risotto

Fry the onion, garlic and leek in olive oil until soft, about 4 minutes, then add the rice and wine and continue cooking until the wine is evaporated then pour in 3/4 of the stock, lemon zest and herbs and season generously with a couple of pinches of salt. Bring to a simmer then cover with a lid and bake in the oven for 15 minutes (you can continue on the hob if preferred).
While the risotto is cooking, briefly simmer the asparagus and peas in salted water, drain and reserve.
Once the rice is cooked, remove from the oven and stir in the parmesan, butter and lemon juice and top with more stock to loosen to your preference. Finally fold in the asparagus and peas and top with the watercress and give it a good turn of black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil and serve.

Pesto

Add all the pesto ingredients to a food processor and blitz until smooth; or finely chop and grate, top with more olive oil or lemon juice as preferred and drizzle over the risotto for some extra oomph!

FLEXITARIAN

Use chicken stock for more flavour. Try Italian mixed herbs or add a few sprigs of thyme and rosemary. If you really can’t live without meat, cubed chicken will go well in this.

Nutrition Per Serving

Baked Spring Risotto by Steph