Thursday, June 26, 2008

Taste & Create: Savory Strawberry Risotto

Strawberry Risotto Today's post is part of a very fun blog event, Taste and Create, hosted by For the Love of Food. Nicole randomly pairs food bloggers and we have the fun task of creating a tasty dish from our partner's blog.

Strawberry Risotto

Photo Taken Indoors

For my first adventure, I've been matched with Rosella from Ma che ti sei mangiato, a lovely blog based in Italy. Armed with the wonders of the Internet, Babel Fish provided me with a rough & sometimes confusing translation of Rosella's amazing looking dishes. Technology's not perfect quite yet! Loving Italian food, I enjoyed perusing all of her creations and finally settled upon one that is traditionally Italian though one new to me: Strawberry Risotto.

As a lover of strawberries, I've had them in nearly every form: bread, muffins, pie, shortcakes, and tarts. Could strawberries be savory? Or, would the dish be more like a dessert? I had to know!

Adapting from Rosella's post, here's the steps I followed to create this tasty dish. The risotto is certainly savory with just a hint of the berries. If you weren't told strawberries were hiding in there, you'd probably never know. The risotto would go wonderfully with a big glass of white wine. You might as well finish off the wine bottle you opened to make the risotto!
Thanks Rosella. I had a great time learning some Italian words :)
Strawberry RisottoPhoto taken outdoors...what a color difference!

Risotto Alle Fragole, Strawberry Risotto
2 tablespoons butter or extra virgin olive oil (Olio extra vergine d'oliva)
1 small shallot (scalogno)
1 cup risotto rice (riso)
4 cups vegetable broth (brodo vegetale)
1 glass white wine (vino blanco) - I used a little more than 1/2 cup of white wine
4-8 strawberries (fragole)
cream (panna da cucina) -- I used a few pats of butter

1. Bring the broth to a boil. Turn heat down until its simmering.
2. Wash and hull strawberries. Lightly crush them if you have a mortar & pestle. I don't, so I sent them through the food processor a few times.

3. Saute shallots in olive oil or butter over medium heat. Don't allow to brown.
4. Add rice and toss to ensure all grains are covered by butter or oil.
5. Pour in the wine and let it reduce, meanwhile continue to stir to prevent rice from sticking.
6. Pour 1-2 ladles of the broth onto the rice and allow to reduce (until nearly dry) before adding 2 additional ladles. Allow to reduce and add strawberries.
7. Continue to add ladles of broth until the rice is cooked and liquid is absorbed.
8. If using cream, take pot off the heat and stir in.

17 comments:

La Bella Cooks said...

Interesting combo. I would have never thought of pairing the two besides for a dessert... like a rice pudding.

Anonymous said...

This really is quite amazing..wish I could have a sneaky taste. What did you accompany it with?

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

YUM. Enough said :0)

Aimee said...

That sounds like a very interesting recipe, Sharon. I like risotto, too, and never would have thought strawberries would go with it. The only thing I don't like about making risotto is it's time consuming. Delicious, but time consuming! :-)

Anonymous said...

Wow, what an amazing risotto, I would have never imagined a strawberry risotto! Very cool!

Clumbsy Cookie said...

Perfecto!

Sharon said...

Yes, this is quite the interesting combo. Coincidentally, I happened upon this spaghetti & strawberry recipe on Foodgawker today:
http://www.cookthink.com/blog/?p=1026

bridgett - If I make this again I think I might try to do more of a sweet rice pudding. That's just me though as I like everything sweet!

recipes2share - It's a great side dish with a simple balsamic grilled chicken.

veggiegirl - thanks :)

aimee - Sometimes my attention span is too short for risotto. I forget that I need to keep stirring and multitasking isn't a good idea!

noble pig - I hadn't thought of it either, but apparently its not that odd of a dish. I googled "strawberry risotto" and found all sorts of things!

clumbsy cookie -thanks :)

Prudy said...

The risotto looks delicious and very elegant. What a fun blog event. It's good to use the resources of others.

test it comm said...

That looks good. I like the sound of a strawberry risotto. The photo taken outdoors is really different from the one taken indoors.

grace said...

savory risotto is alright, but a strawberry risotto...that's a different story. it looks absolutely delicious--nice selection! :)

Anonymous said...

This looks really interesting. I've never seen a strawberry risotto before, but I'll definitely have to give it a try!

JB said...

Sharon, this looks amazing. I will definitely have to try considering it's strawberry season here.

Anonymous said...

the last time i made strawberry risotto, i was so blown away by the flavours because like u, it was something new to me. i enjoyed it immensely though as it wasn't too thick and heavy like my usual risottos.
this is beautiful and looks so good!

Jenny said...

HI Sharon,
Your blog is great. This strawberry risotto looks wonderful! I think I know what I'm doing with all my extra strawberries!! Great post!

skoraq cooks said...

Interesting. I love risotto and I absolute love strawberries so I will definitely try this strawberry one :-)

Anonymous said...

So great you did it

Anonymous said...

Thank you VERY much for posting this recipe. I served this as a second course, and it accompanied my chocolate-espresso glazed seared duck perfectly. The acidity of this dish cut the fat of the duck nicely, and the strawberries paired with the chocolate theme running throughout the meal was perfect for Valentine's Day. This is the first time I've seen strawberries used in a savory dish, and I loved it!