savoury

Tomato Risotto

• time: 30
• servings: 4

Ingredients

• 2 onions
• 2 carrots
• 2 celery sticks
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1200 ml vegetable stock
• 400 g plum tomatoes
• 30 g fresh basil
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 300 g Arborio risotto rice
• 0.5 fresh red chilli
• 300 g cottage cheese

Cookware

• large high-sided pan
• pan
• blender
• sieve

Method

1. Peel and finely chop onions, carrots, and celery sticks. Place in a large high-sided pan on a medium heat with olive oil. Cook for 10 minutes, or until softened, stirring occasionally.
2. Simmer vegetable stock and plum tomatoes tinned together in a pan on a low heat.
3. Pick the baby basil leaves from fresh basil into a cup of cold water for later. Rip the top leafy half of the bunch into a blender. Peel garlic clove and add to the blender, cover with half a ladleful of hot stock and blitz until smooth. Add extra virgin olive oil, blitz again, taste, and season to perfection to make your sauce.
4. Stir Arborio risotto rice into the veg for 2 minutes, then gradually add the tomatoey stock through a sieve, a ladleful at a time, really pushing the tomatoes through the sieve, stirring and waiting for each ladleful to be absorbed before adding the next. Repeat this, stirring and massaging the starch out of the rice, for 20 minutes, or until the rice is cooked but still holding its shape, and the risotto is oozy.
5. Deseed and finely chop fresh red chilli, then stir through the risotto with cottage cheese. Taste and season to perfection. Divide up, top with the garlicky basil sauce and scatter over the reserved basil leaves.