Risotto with Artichokes
“This was the first dish I learned to make with the Italian family who I stayed with just behind Piazza Navona in Rome. Beautiful, large, green artichokes, yellow lemon slices, parsley, and curly, dried porcini mushrooms form a picturesque basis for the dish.”
6 Persons
- 500g of rice
- 4 artichokes
- Juice of 1 lemon
- ½ dl of good quality olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 1 handful of parsley
- 3 tbsp of tomato puree
- 1 handful of dried porcini mushrooms
- Salt/pepper
- 100g of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- Let the mushrooms soak in a bowl of cold water. After 10 min. remove them and squeeze the water out and cut them into small pieces.
- Prepare the artichokes by removing the outermost leaves. Cut each artichoke into four and remove the “hairs” around the artichoke heart. Leave 1½ cm of the stalk. Put the artichoke pieces in a bowl of water with lemon juice so that they do not change colour.
- Fry the onion, garlic and parsley in oil in a thick-bottomed pan over moderate heat. The onion must not be browned. Add the artichokes and let them cook a little. Then add the water, tomato puree and mushrooms.
- When the artichokes go soft, add rice. Then gradually add boiling water and stir regularly until finished.
- Finally, mix in the parmesan, salt and pepper.
- TIP: A filling dish that does not need much more. Maybe a Macedonia di frutta – a fruit salad with lemon and sugar – as dessert.
