Arguably more French than Italian in its cooking method, this risotto and predominantly vegetable and cheese dish is the perfect weekday easy rice meal dish readily served in under 30 mins.
This recipe is for two adults. It's easy enough for you to work out to make it other.
Shopping list
Approx. 1 cup of good quality Arborio or other short-grain rice
3 tbspns dried pepperoncini or other dried red chillies; roughly ground
2 tbspns of smoked garlic OR 3 cloves of garlic, crushed or chopped
1 large red sweet pepper, thinly sliced
1 large leek, thinly sliced
1 vegetable stock cube or jelly
Approx. 200g fresh whole-leaf spinach
1 chicken stock cube or jelly
Salt and black pepper to taste
A large glass of white wine
A liberal dousing of extra virgin olive oil (about 4 tabspns)
3 bay leaves
the zest of 1 fresh lemon
grated Grana Padano, parmesan or pecorino (optional)
Cooking Method
In a deep pan or wok with a lid, heat a little olive oil and sauté the smoked garlic (or crushed cloves) until brown. Add the sliced leek. When it too begins to soften, add the sliced red pepper and later the diced pancetta. Finally, add half of the white wine and allow to boil off
Remove all of these ingredients and place on a plate. Add a little more olive oil to the pan, bringing back up to a high heat
Add the raw rice and the dried chillies crushed in a pestle with a mortar. Stir ensuring that both are coated in the oil
Add the chicken stock cube/jelly to the pan and pour in about 1 cup of boiling water. Stir gently and bring to a boil. Boil for about 5 mins before reducing the heat, covering and simmering for about 10 min. In this recipe, you do not stir very regularly as with Italian risotto, rather you cover and simmer more in the French style
After the mixture and stock has been simmering for about 10 min, spoon in all of the leek, pepper and pancetta you previously cooked. Stir thoroughly and add more boiling water (about a half a cup). Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for about another 10 mins
When the rice shows signs of being near cooked, add the spinach and stir in. Add the lemon zest and three bay leaves once the spinach shows signs of wilting. Season with fresh black pepper and salt. Cover and simmer for another 5 to 7 mins
When the rice is cooked through, turn off the heat and allow to settle before plating. Serve with grated hard Italian cheese if you prefer
Accompaniments & Variations
This dish is readily turned vegetarian or vegan. Simply replace the pancetta with cubed aubergine, mushrooms and or pumpkin and cook in exactly the same manner; desist from the optional grated cheese (unless you have a desired veggie option)
I seldom serve this dish with any accompaniment, but when I do it's usually a simple green salad
Pairings
Despite this actually being a dish that contains pancetta as a default, I think it works particularly well with plucky whites such as a good Sicilian Catarratto or, my personal favourite, a good Cinque Terre blend of Bosco, Albarola and Vermentino.
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