Mon (way too) late: Zucchini/Basil Risotto

Okay, so this is late. But I didn't get home till 11pm, and then I had to write a blog post for my day job. Sorry about that.

Luckily, Maria beat me home by two hours, plenty of time to make a fabulous summer risotto. It's adapted from a recipe from Perla Meyers' Spur of the Moment Cook (and yes, if you don't have this, you probably ought to).

1 cup basil leaves (be liberal here)
2 big cloves garlic, minced or mashed
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp sweet butter
1 good-sized red or white onion, diced fine
1 3/4 cups arborio rice
2 cups zucchini, sliced pretty small (don't pulverize it, though)
3 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/4 to 1/2 cup Parmesan (freshly shaved Reggiano is best, but hey, you gotta sleep.)

Put the basil and garlic in a processor, and add a little oil to make a paste. Preheat the oven to 350 to warm up the bread.

Melt the butter in a big pan on low heat. Saute onion for about 2 minutes. Throw in rice and zucchini. Cook for about a minute.

Add the white wine, and then 2 cups of the chicken stock, stirring constantly. Simmer as low as you can get for 10 minutes.

When it looks like the rice is taking up the liquid, raise the heat to medium and add the other cup of stock, a little at a time, stirring constantly till each quarter-cup or so is absorbed. This'll take 10-15 minutes. (Throw the bread in the oven now, too.)

DO NOT cook the rice till it's soggy. It's ready when it's a little chewy at the center. Take it off the heat and mix in the basil/garlic paste you processed plus the 1/4 cup cream. Warm it through. Plate it and top it with the shaved parmesan (and a couple of diced tomatoes if you wanna get fancy, though it's fine without.) Salt and pepper to taste.

(And also, get the bread out before it carbonizes. )

A warning: Don't salt till you've added the parmesan. It's a salty cheese. And with a recipe this delicate, it's easy to kill it with too much salt. Add the cheese, melt, mix, TASTE, and adjust accordingly.

We like it with warm bread, spinach salad, and (well, me at least) a lot of black pepper. For wine, try a white bordeaux. TJ's has a decent one for $5.

Also, chicken stock is way better for risotto than bouillion, which is really two-dimensional. And Maria swears you could cut out the cream and this would still rock. I'm unconvinced.