WATERCRESS RISOTTO RECIPE

I recently found myself craving a creamy risotto and with lots of peppery watercress….

Here’s a risotto I sort of made up as I went – and as usual with such spontaneous recipes, it came it great!

You can use any rice for risotto – brown is fine too. I have also used barley, which turned out well too – different but very good. I used some fancy carnaroli rice that I’d been saving and was about to get old.

The steps below can also be used for creating any risotto – 

Ingredients

2-3 tbsp butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
1-2 scapes – coarsely chopped
2 cups of arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine (optional)
6-7 cups of broth – heated 
you can use any broth including robust bone broths. I actually used clam broth that I found in the freezer.
1 cup of cubed mushrooms could be any type
1/4 cup of fresh peas
2 cups of chopped fresh water cress
1/2 cup heavy cream (optional)
1/4-1/2 cup parmesan cheese (optional)
sea salt and black pepper – to taste

Steps
Start with heating butter in a skillet. Add about 1/2 cup chopped onion and scapes. Add raw rice and cook, stirring, until rice gets a little translucent (can start to pick up a bit of color).

Add 1/2 cup of white wine if you have it – I didn’t so I skipped the wine although it is a pretty classic risotto step…. I did add a handful of cubed crimini mushrooms. 

Start adding ladles of the heated broth to the rice. Let one ladle-full get soaked up before adding the next. 

After about 4 cups worth, add peas.

After about 5-6 cups have been added, taste rice and see if nice and tender. Rice should have a bite to it and not be mushy. Add watercress now. Add salt and black pepper to taste. 

It is really delicious at this point, but you can add the heavy cream and cheese if you like now… I added only 1/4 cup of cream and skipped the cheese, because I used the delicately flavored clam broth and didn’t want to drown it out with the strong flavor of the cheese…

And enjoy!