A typical risotto recipe--good for a late spring potluck. The key is to cook the asparagus separately and cut off the delicate heads to use as a garnish.
Ingredients
1 pound fresh whole asparagus
1/2 Vidalia onion, chopped fine
1/2 white onion, chopped fine
8 cloves garlic (more or less), minced
4 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 stick butter
2 cups arborio rice
1 bottle white wine
4 cups broth or homemade stock
1/2 tsp salt
many handfuls of parmesan or romano
Assemblage
- Preparing asparagus: Trim off the very ends of the asparagus, and any extra woody bits. With a peeler, shave off all around the tough end of the spear. See photo above.
- Heat olive oil and butter together at medium-high heat. When butter is all melted, add the onions and garlic. Stir stir stir.
- Add the rice. Stir until everything is coated and starting to get toasty. Then, add a good ladle-ful of either stock or white wine.
- Separately, boil a pot of water.
- Now is the fun part. When the rice starts to seem dry, which is basically every couple minutes, add more liquid and stir it in. Alternate between ladles of wine and stock. It can take about 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, put the whole asparagus into the boiling water. Set the timer for 5 minutes. Pull it out and cut the stalks into 1/2 inch pieces. Set the heads aside.
- When the rice starts to clump up instead of eating more liquid, turn the heat down. Add the asparagus pieces (NOT the heads). When almost ready to serve, add the salt and cheese and stir in thoroughly.
- Plate the risotto and garnish with the asparagus heads. Here's how it looks next to some toothsome salmon.
I'm submitting this recipe to Weekend Wokking, a world-wide food blogging event created by Wandering Chopsticks celebrating the multiple ways we can cook one ingredient. The host this month is Wandering Chopsticks. If you would like to participate or to see the secret ingredient, check who's hosting next month.
