Sunday, July 31, 2011

Cheesy Zucchini and Mint Risotto

I had an emotionally trying day today so after church and a bowl of mac&cheese (seriously, that stuff is comfort food to me!) I took a long nap. I had a friend coming over with zucchini today and I really wanted to see her, but I just couldn't stay awake anymore! Seriously, why does crying drain a person so much?! 


I woke up to the delicious smell of zucchini cooking. I couldn't place the other smells but I knew there was zucchini in there and that was enough to get me out of bed! Ian wouldn't let me in the kitchen, not even to clean up afterwards (win!!) so I waited in the living room trying to figure out what it was. I couldn't do it. All I had was zucchini haha!!


I found this on my plate. (Ok, not really. This is a picture I jacked from someone else's blog because I was too hungry to take a picture.)
http://fivechefsandamom.blogspot.com/2011/01/cheesy-zucchini-and-mint-risotto.html

And as long as we're being honest, I'm just grabbing what she typed about it too. I'm tired and it's already there!!

You'll need:
1 small zucchini
1 small bunch of fresh mint
1 4oz. of buffalo mozzarella
1 small red onion
1 stick of celery
5 oz. risotto
1 3/4 c. vegetable broth
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 medium fresh red chili
1 oz. Parmesan cheese
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Sea Salt
Black Pepper

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Place a large saucepan on low to med. heat.
Dice onion and celery
Add a tablespoon of butter to the hot pan with the onion and celery, a splash of olive oil and a splash of water.
Cook over a low heat for around 5 min., stirring occasionally, until softened.
Bring the veg. broth to a boil in a med. saucepan, the turn heat down to low.
Trim the zucchini ends and dice.
Pick the leaves off the mint stalks and put them to the side. Add the stalks to the saucepan of the broth.
Finely grate the Parmesan.
Once the veggies are soft (not browned) add the risotto to the pan.
Stir and fry the risotto for a min. until translucent, then add the wine and keep stirring until all the wine has been absorbed by the rice.
Turn the heat under the rice up to med. then add a ladle full of hot broth, avoiding the mint stalks (only in there for flavor).
Stir constantly and continue adding brother, a ladle at a time, waiting for the risotto to soak it all up before adding the next ladle full. Contunil until you've used 2/3 of the broth.
Finely chop the mint leaves and the chili. (keep seeds if you like it spicy)
Stir the diced zucchini into the broth and keep adding the broth by the ladleful until the risotto is just cooked and had a nice oozy consistency. If you run out of broth, use boiling water.
Take the pan of the risotto off the heat.
Tear the ball of mozzarella into pieces and stir into the pan with half of the chopped mint.
Stir through half of your grated parmesan.
Taste the risotto and season well with pepper and a pinch of salt.
Serve onto plate and top each one with the remaining parmesan, a sprinkle of chopped mint and fresh chili and then tuck in.
Enjoy!
(photo credit: http://www.imnojamieoliver.com/?p=460)
(recipe credit: Jamie Oliver 20 Min. Meals iPhone App)


Ian made some obvious edits to the recipe, like leaving out the wine, and he didn't know we had any broth so he used cream of chicken soup plus some water. He's so cute :) He also didn't have mozzarella so he used cheddar. He left out the onions because he hates onions, and we don't have any celery. And no chili because I can't do spice. And we don't have risotto rice so he used regular long grain rice. OTHERWISE it's exactly the same haha!!

I love my husband...he's such a good cook. He just doesn't do it very often! Maybe I'll start taking more Sunday naps!!!

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