Tomato Risotto - Finally, The Recipe

After much raving about the tomato risotto, and many promises about bringing you the recipe soon, here it is.

30 g butter
1 small onion, finely sliced
1 large garlic clove
Salt
Black pepper
1 ½ cups of Arborio rice
¾ cup white wine
+/- 750 ml home-made chicken stock.
250 g baby tomatoes
A drizzle of olive oil
A can of chopped plum tomatoes
½ cup cream
Medium bunch of basil leaves

Cut up the baby tomatoes into quarters and liberally season with salt and black pepper. Drizzle over the olive oil and roast under the grill till the tomatoes are caramelised and a little charred on the edges.

Melt the butter in a heavy –based pan. On a medium heat,  add the onion, salt  and pepper and the garlic. Gently sauté, allowing the garlic to flavour the oil and the onion to turn sweet and translucent.  Add the rice and stir, allowing it to be covered with the butter. I like to turn up the heat a bit here and then throw the wine over. Stir until it evapourates.
A soup ladle or two at a time, add the stock. (I will save my rantings about the taste-value that comes from making stock yourself rather than using the cubes diluted in water- I’ll do a post on how to make chicken or vegetable stock)
Stir until each addition of stock has been absorbed.  Repeat until the rice is al dente.  Allow the moisture to evapourate a little and then add the can of chopped tomatoes.  Then toss through the baby tomatoes.
Stir through the cream and then tear the up the bunch of basil leaves and stir them through too.

Serve with a green side salad with a light vinaigrette.  Also lovely with some pancetta or black forest ham on the side.  Otherwise it makes a lovely vegetarian meal.
I had mine with the Lourensford Shiraz rosé which complimented the tomato flavours very well.