A cheap and easy to prepare risotto made with the leftover stalks of the vegetable
ingredients for 4 servings (cost about 1,5 € pp)
- 6-8 central broccoli stalks (or 300 g broccoli flowers)
- 240 g carnaroli rice
- A small glass white wine
- 1,2 litre vegetable stock
- EV Olive oil
- 1 medium onion
- Salt
- 40 g Parmigiano or Grana cheese
- 12 small pieces of broccoli flowers for garnishing
- The filet of half herring
- Coarse black pepper
When I prepare broccoli, a natural shield against illnesses, I always have the same problem: what to do with the central stalk which cannot be boiled with the flowers as on one hand it has a different cooking time and on the other it is very fibrous and not tasty to eat it whole.
So, once, I decided to prepare a risotto and it came very very good. Let´s make it together. It is obvious that we can also prepare this risotto exclusively with broccoli flowers and more obvious that this way the risotto will be even better.
We first peel the broccoli stalks and discard their lower part which is extremely tough. We cut the stalks in small pieces and we boil them in plenty of boiling salted water for at least 15 minutes till very very tender. In the same water we also boil for just 3 minutes the pieces of the broccoli flowers which we will use for garnish. When all ready we add the stalk pieces in the blender making them a cream and we mark the flower pieces in a preheated skillet to add some Maillard aromas and create a more interesting texture.
We start our risotto by cutting in very small dice the onion and gently frying it in olive oil for 5 minutes.
In a small pan we lightly toast the rice WITH NO FAT AT ALL and when it is so hot that we cannot touch it in our hands, we pour it into the soffritto pan. We add the wine and then we start cooking the risotto, adding a ladle of very hot – boiling stock, when the liquid starts to get reduced.
While the rice is being prepared, we finely grind the cheese and we cut in small pieces the herring fillet.
When the rice is prepared (al dente of course) we add the broccoli cream, we stir and we remove the pan from the stove. We taste the salt and, if needed, we add some more.
Stirring constantly we start adding more olive oil and the cheese. We continue stirring until we obtain a very creamy result, we cover the pan with a lid and we let it stand for 2 minutes.
We put in plates, we garnish with the broccoli flower and the herring pieces, we add some pepper and we serve.
