Oven-baked risotto

Ingredients

300g chorizo (chopped)

1 onion (chopped)

1 clove garlic (chopped)

1 cup risotto rice

2 tblspn olive oil

3 cups stock

2 tspn oregano or Italian herbs

1 punnet of cherry tomatoes

300g parmesan cheese

30g butter

2 handfuls baby spinach leaves

Method

Pre-heat oven to 200ºC. In a frying pan cook the chorizo with one tablespoon of olive oil, then add onion and garlic and continue cooking, adding the herbs for another minute (it should be smelling great now!). Stir in the risotto rice and mix in well. Add the stock and bring to the boil while stirring.

Transfer the risotto to a baking dish, cover tightly with foil and bake for about 25 minutes (until all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is ‘al dente’).  

While the risotto is baking in the oven, halve the cherry tomatoes, place on a lined oven tray, drizzle or spray with olive oil, season lightly with salt and pepper and roast for about 15 minutes until they’re blistered.

When the risotto is cooked, stir through a splash of water to loosen the rice, if needed.

Stir in the parmesan cheese, the butter and baby spinach leaves. Gently fold in the roasted tomatoes and serve.

Now, for a confession because the photo of our risotto doesn’t match the recipe: one of our sons had brought all the ingredients with him and brought some fresh mussels as a treat . . . our family all love seafood. And seeing I’m ‘coming clean’ on that point, I’d better confess that he whipped up the whole thing - but it was in MY kitchen, so I did have something to do with it.

He prepared the risotto as per recipe (having replaced 2 cups of stock with 2 cups of water as the mussels produce a lot of salty water as they cook) and then pressed the mussels, complete with shells, into the risotto. He covered it again with foil and continued baking it in the oven for another 10 minutes. Need I say, it was delicious!