Easy dinner recipes: Three risotto variations in an hour or less
Risotto contains all those traits we love about comfort food: it’s rich and creamy, warm and soothing, simple and delicious. Typically made with arborio rice, a starchy short-grain rice, this one-pot meal cooks slowly, stock or broth added a little at a time as the rice slowly softens and expands to velvety tenderness in a rich and creamy sauce. It’s a labor-intensive dish -- you do have to stand over the stove and stir -- but the results are well worth it. Even with the work, you can still put dinner on the table in an hour or less. Best of all, you can flavor the risotto however you like.
Take lemon risotto. The preparation begins traditionally enough, the rice started in a pot with butter and onions, chicken stock slowly ladled into the pot. In the final steps, whisk in a little lemon juice and zest with an egg yolk -- the lemon really brightens the flavors while the yolk adds an extra layer of richness. Finish, of course, with Parmesan cheese. Because everything is better with cheese.
Perhaps you’re thinking of a tomato risotto, using some of those great summer tomatoes you’re finding in the markets or garden about now. This vegetarian dish uses vegetable broth, the flavors brightened with fresh basil. And plenty of cheese.
RECIPES: 100 easy dinner ideas in about an hour or less
Or try a mock risotto using fresh summer corn. Layer the flavors with zucchini and bell peppers, Spanish chorizo and large, plump shrimp for a colorful, filling meal. Hungry yet?
You can find all three recipes below.
And for more ideas, click through our easy dinner recipes gallery and check out our Dinner Tonight page, devoted to recipes that can be made in an hour or less. Looking for a particular type of recipe? Comment below or email me at noelle.carter@latimes.com.
LEMON RISOTTO
Note: In the risotto chapter of his cookbook, “A Passion for Piedmont” (Morrow, 1997), Matt Kramer emphasizes the simplicity of risotto, and none exemplifies this simplicity better than the Lemon Risotto, which we excerpted from his book. Kramer reminds us that in Italy, the risotto or rice dish is not a side dish, as are most rice dishes elsewhere in the world, but rather the focus of the meal. This risotto is cooked slowly and patiently to tease the creamy essence out of the rice itself.
8 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons butter or olive oil, plus 2 optional tablespoons butter
1 onion or 4 large shallots, very finely chopped
2 1/2 cups Arborio or Carnaroli rice
Salt
1 large egg yolk
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup (2 ounces) finely grated Parmigiano- Reggiano cheese
Bring stock to boil and immediately reduce to simmer.
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in large heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring, until translucent, 2 to 3 minutes. Raise heat to high and add rice all at once, stirring vigorously, until grains are translucent and “pearl” in each grain appears clearly, about 1 minute. Immediately reduce heat to low and add 2 or 3 ladles of simmering stock, just barely enough to cover rice. Season with salt to taste and stir briefly. Adjust heat throughout process so stock is barely bubbling. When air holes start to appear on surface, after about 2 minutes, add another ladle of stock. Continue to cook and add stock, tasting for salt from time to time, taking care not to use too much.
Meanwhile, in small bowl, whisk together egg yolk and lemon zest and juice. Set aside.
After 18 to 20 minutes, rice should be close to tender-but-firm stage, neither hard nor too mushy. Risotto is done when you decide that just 1 more ladle of stock will bring rice to its full glory. Err on slightly liquid side, because rice will continue to absorb stock.
Modify body of risotto by stirring in little more stock, then immediately remove pan from heat.
Slowly swirl in egg yolk mixture, stirring in thoroughly. Add grated Parmigiano, stirring again. Check for texture. If consistency is too dry, stir in little stock. Add 2 tablespoons butter, if you wish, stirring in. Serve immediately on very hot plates.
4 to 6 servings. Each of 6 servings: 444 calories; 1,289 mg sodium; 64 mg cholesterol; 10 grams fat; 70 grams carbohydrates; 16 grams protein; 0.33 gram fiber.
HEIRLOOM TOMATO RISOTTO
Active Work and Total Preparation Time: 50 minutes * Vegetarian
2 1/2 to 3 pounds tomatoes, preferably heirloom varieties
3 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt
1 onion, chopped
7 to 8 cups vegetable broth
2 1/2 cups Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
Pepper
Bring a pot of water to boil. Cut a shallow “x” in the bottom of each tomato and place the tomatoes in the water. Cook 30 seconds, remove and rinse under cold water. Peel the tomatoes with a tip of a knife. Core the tomatoes and cut them in large wedges or 11/2-inch chunks, preserving their juice.
Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, about 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and some salt and simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring only once or twice.
In a large nonstick skillet, heat the remaining 11/2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat and cook the onion with a dash of salt until it begins to turn golden, 5 to 6 minutes. In another saucepan, heat the vegetable broth to just below a simmer and keep it hot.
Add the rice to the onion and stir it gently for 2 or 3 minutes. Pour in the wine and stir immediately as it is absorbed.
Add a soup ladle of hot broth to the rice and stir with a wooden spoon (so you don’t ruin your pan), keeping the mixture just at a simmer. When the broth is nearly absorbed, add another ladleful and keep stirring. Continue this way, adding the broth a bit at a time and stirring almost constantly. After about 15 minutes, add the cooked tomatoes with their juice and stir until the juice is nearly absorbed, then continue adding broth as before until the rice is al dente. This process will take about 25 minutes, and at the end you will have a creamy sauce around rice grains that are tender but firm and studded with brightly colored pieces of tomato.
Remove from the heat, stir in the basil and the Parmesan cheese, taste, adjust the salt and add pepper if desired. Add a last ladle of broth, give a final stir and spoon the risotto into bowls. Pass the additional Parmesan cheese at the table.
6 to 8 servings. Each of 8 servings: 323 calories; 877 mg sodium; 7 mg cholesterol; 10 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 47 grams carbohydrates; 9 grams protein; 2.68 grams fiber.
SWEET CORN AND SHRIMP ‘RISOTTO’
Total time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Servings: 6 to 8
1 pound large shrimp, in shell
1/2 cup chopped green onion (trimmings saved)
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper (trimmings saved)2 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
3 to 4 zucchini (4 cups sliced)
6 ears of corn (about 5 cups kernels)
1 tablespoon butter
3/4 cup diced Spanish chorizo
or other mildly spicy dried
sausage (about 2 ounces)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup whipping cream
3 tablespoons slivered basil
1. Shell the shrimp, collecting the shells in a small deep saucepan; set the shrimp aside. Add the green onion and red bell pepper trimmings to the saucepan. Barely cover the shells and trimmings with water, about 3 to 3 1/2 cups, and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook 30 minutes, then remove from heat and let steep another 30 minutes. Sitr in one-half teaspoon salt and strain into a measuring cup. You should have about 3 cups of shrimp stock; what you don’t use for this recipe can be stored tightly covered in the refrigerator.
2. Cut the zucchini in quarters lengthwise, then into crosswise slices about three-eighths-inch thick. You should have about 4 cups.
3. Cut the corn from the cobs by holding each cob upright in a wide, shallow bowl and cutting away the kernels with a sharp knife. Using the back of the knife, scrape any corn left on the cob into the bowl.
4. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the chorizo and cook until well browned, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add the green onion and red bell pepper and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
5. Add the zucchini and shrimp and cook for a minute. Season with 2 teaspoons salt. Add the wine and raise the heat to high. Cook until the mixture is reduced to a syrup, about 5 minutes. Add the corn and one-half cup shrimp stock and let it reduce. Add another one-half cup stock and the whipping cream and cook just until slightly thickened and creamy, about 5 minutes.
6. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the slivered basil. Taste and adjust seasoning and serve immediately.
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