A simple dish – sharing the same ingredients as a margherita pizza – using store-cupboard staples
Diana Henry
The Telegraph's award-winning cookery writer
Diana Henry is the Telegraph’s much-loved cookery writer. She shares recipes each week, for everything from speedy family dinners to special menus that friends will remember for months. She is also a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio 4, and her journalism and recipe books, including Simple and How to Eat a Peach, are multi-award-winning. A mother of two sons, Diana can satisfy even the fussiest of eaters.
Published
Don’t immediately diss this because it’s made with tinned tomatoes. It’s a great dish and one of the most popular in my house (where it’s known as risotto margherita because it uses the same ingredients as the pizza). To get it done in 30 minutes you have to work fast at the beginning. After that, it’s just stirring. It’s up to you how far you go with the embellishments.
Overview
Prep time
5 mins
Cook time
25 mins
Serves
4
Ingredients
- ½ tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 75g butter
- ½ medium onion, very finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove, very finely chopped
- 350g risotto rice
- 100ml dry white wine or dry vermouth
- 600ml vegetable stock (or chicken if you prefer) – you may need a little more, or you can use water once your stock has run out
- 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes (I use Mutti)
- 75g Parmesan, grated
Optional extras
- 8-12 little round balls of mozzarella (bocconcini)
- 4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 6 anchovies, very finely chopped
- 1 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
Method
Step
Heat ½ tbsp olive oil and a knob of butter in a heavy-bottomed pan and gently sauté ½ finely chopped onion until it’s soft but not coloured.
Step
Add 1 finely chopped garlic clove and cook for 2 minutes.
Step
Stir in 350g risotto rice, making sure it all gets coated in the fat, then add 100ml white wine or vermouth and stir until it has reduced almost completely.
Step
Heat 600ml vegetable or chicken stock in a separate pan until it’s gently simmering.
Step
Stir 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes into the rice and keep stirring over a medium-low heat, then add a ladleful of stock. Once the rice has absorbed all the liquid you’ve added, add some more, stirring continuously. Keep stirring and adding stock (or water) until the rice is cooked but still has a little bite left in each grain.
Step
Add the remaining butter – you don’t have to use it all, but it does make the risotto very luscious – stirring until it has melted, then add 75g grated Parmesan.
Step
Check the seasoning – the Parmesan and reduced stock will have made it quite salty, but you might need a bit more – and add pepper.
Step
Finish with 8-12 balls little round balls of mozzarella, if using, and allow it to melt a little in the heat.
Step
Stir together 4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, 6 finely chopped anchovies and 1 tbsp finely chopped parsley, if using, and spoon some over each serving.