This article was written for Annabel & Grace, which is now part of Rest Less.
Jamie’s Oozy Courgette Risotto
Ingredients serves 2
1 small onion
1 small clove garlic
1 stick celery
1 knob unsalted butter
olive oil
1 small courgette
½ vegetable stock cube
½ bunch fresh basil
20g Italian hard cheese
150g arborio rice
100ml white wine
½ fresh red chilli
125g mozzarella
How to prepare
Peel the onion & garlic, trim the celery and finely chop all three. Place a medium saucepan over a medium-low heat. Place the butter in the hot pan with the onion, garlic and celery, a splash of oil and a splash of water. Reduce the heat to low and cook for around 5 mins or until softened, stirring occasionally.
Trim the courgette, slice lengthways into quarters, then chop into small ½cm chunks and put to one side.
Fill a medium saucepan with 400ml of water. Add the stock cube and bring to the boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve, then turn the heat to low.
Pick and reserve the basil leaves, then add the stalks to the pan of stock.
Once the vegetables are very soft but not browned, add the rice to the pan.
Stir and fry the rice for one minute until translucent, then add the wine and keep stirring until it has been absorbed by the rice. Turn the heat under the rice up to medium, then add a ladleful of hot stock, avoiding the stalks. Stir constantly and continue adding stock, a ladle at a time, waiting for the rice to soak it all up before adding the next ladleful. Continue until you’ve used ⅔ of the stock.
Finely chop the basil leaves and the chilli.
Stir the chopped courgette into the stock and keep adding it to the rice until it is cooked and has a nice oozy consistency.
Take to pan of risotto off the heat. Tear the mozzarella into small pieces and stir into the pan with half the basil. Stir through half the grated Italian hard cheese, then season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover with a lid and leave for 2 minutes.
Divide the risotto between two plates, scatter over the remaining Italian hard cheese, basil and chilli, then tuck in.