Main/Risotto

Fennel Risotto

Marked for Revision Yields: serves Cost: $3.52 per serve Difficulty: 5/10

From a Vittles article on Substack (subject: Soaking up the juicy morsels of our lives), by Claire-Louise Bennett. Aside from step 1, the procedure is verbatim. Provides some optional extra ingredients: Butter, fennel bulb (but sliced roughly and roasted), walnuts (cool idea) and feta cheese. Mentions making your own stock earlier in the day with carrot, celery, onions, peppercorns, bay leaf, a couple of whole tomatoes, some scrubbed lemon wedges and parsley stems “and so on”. Throw them in the pot and simmer for a while, then gently reheat in time to cook the rice (don’t boil).

Ingredients

  • Olive oil 2 tbsp
  • Brown onions 1 whole
  • Fennel 3 whole (bulbs?)
  • Garlic 3 cloves
  • Arborio 300 grams
  • White wine 1 cup
  • Chilli flakes to taste
  • Vegetable stock 1 litre
  • Lemon (zest of) 1 whole
  • Parsley a handful
  • Black pepper to taste
  • Salt to taste
  • Parmesan to taste

Steps

  1. Finely dice onions. Remove tough outer layer from fennel and slice thinly. Crush or grate garlic. Grate lemon zest from 1 lemon. Roughly chop parsley.
  2. Add olive oil to a wide pan set over a medium heat. When it's hot, add the chopped onion and fennel and cook gently, stirring constantly until it starts to soften.
  3. Once the fennel is slightly softened and the onion is golden, add the garlic and cook for a minute or so. Don’t let the garlic brown or it will taste bitter.
  4. Pour in the rice and stir, coating with the fragrant oil. Toast the rice for a couple of minutes and then pour in the wine or beer. Stir constantly until the liquid more or less disappears.
  5. Sprinkle in a few chilli flakes if you like - it adds some warmth.
  6. Turn the heat down to medium-low, and begin ladling in the stock. Pour yourself another drink, light up, launch into another unbelievable bit of news. Stir, pour, ladle, smoke, chatter. You can stop stirring from time to time, and you can turn the heat right down if you think the rice is in danger of being ready too soon.
  7. Once the rice can absorb nothing more and is tender, add lemon zest and parsley and season generously. At this point you can fold in some butter, but generally a little grated parmesan is sufficient. If I’m finishing off with optional extras - roasted fennel, roasted red pepper, walnuts, feta cheese - then I skip the parmesan.
  8. Let it cool down a bit before serving with a green salad.