Ceci’s Tomato Risotto
Risotto is one of our favourite family meals and learning to make a simple risotto is a great skill to have in the kitchen. This tomato version is always popular with my children and uses only basic store cupboard ingredients, making it the perfect mid-week meal. The finished dish tastes far more complex than the sum of its parts, so if you want to impress with minimum effort that this is a wonderful recipe to try.
It brings me such joy to share recipes with close friends and family and I have a very dear friend whom I met during antenatal classes. Our daugters were subsequently born weeks apart and for that reason we will always be in each other lives. Her daughter Ceci loves this recipe, I have been sent wonderful photos of Ceci eating this and now that she is older helping to cook it. This recipe is dedciated to her.
ingredients
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
250g risotto rice
1 tin (400g) good quality organic plum tomatoes
750ml - 1L homemade stock, or no added salt stock
to serve
grated Parmesan
fresh basil leaves
oven roasted tomatoes
method
Combine the stock and plum tomatoes, warm through over a low heat. In a separate pot melt the butter and olive oil; add the onion and gently soften for around 8-10 mins until translucent. Next add the rice and coat in the oil, butter and onion.
Slowly add the stock/ tomato mix one ladleful at a time, breaking up the plum tomatoes with a spoon. Once the ladleful of the liquid has been absorbed, add the next ladleful, stirring all the time. Continue until all the stock/tomato mix has been used up: this process should take around 20 mins (approx).
To finish the risotto add a final knob of butter and cover with a lid, to rest for 5 mins. It’s now ready to eat. For extra flavour: serve with (optional) grated Parmesan, fresh basil leaves and oven roasted tomatoes .
Not suitable for freezing