riZAtto - a Risotto a la Za-

By Za

Good morning everyone! 

Today I bring you a pretty much DYI-ed recipe. I was was mentioning to one of my Italian friends that needed some ideas for dinner (Iftar) and the conversation led to the recipe of the Italian Risotto. To tell the truth, I've onlu tried it once! I liked it but it was a bit too salty and heavy for me, could be the restaurant. I wasn't in Italy, the chef wasn't Italian, so I couldn't complain haha. 

So after I had taken the recipe from her, I hit the kitchen only to find out that I don't have some of the ingredients.. least of all Parmesan cheese! that thing never entered my house lol. 

So, I just thought of using whatever, well not literally, what I used was: 

• Spinach (a big bowl) - I buy them frozen. 
• 2 tbsp oil 
• 1 tomato 
• 4 Garlic cloves 
• 1/2 onion 
• Cumin and paprika (just the tip of the knife) 
• Rice 
• white cream 
• Kurkuma (tip of a knife) 
• salt
• Bacon (beef or Turkey) 
• 2 medium potatoes (optional) but they really add a nicer taste. 

• NO CHEESE 

So, use 2 cooking pots to start with, 

one to boil the rice, and the other to prepare your spinach mixture. 

The spinach mix: 
In a cooking pot, pour some oil and add your grated onion and garlic. stir them to soften for a bit. 

Add spinach and let it cook for while (7 minutes or so) 

Add the grated tomato on to and stir. let it cook + salt. 

Add a tiny bit of cumin and paprika, when the mixture is cooked, remove it off the stove and put it aside. 

Rice, 

Once the rice is boiled, sieve it and put it back in a cooking pot, add your white cream (if it's thick you can dilute it a bit with water) I did add a bit of water because the rice absorbs it quickly, so I add about 2 cm of a normal glass. 

Once the rice and cream become homogeneous, add your spinach mixture and stir, (if the whole mixture is thick, you can add either a bit of milk or water until you can the consistence you prefer) 

Now, add a little bit o Kurkurma, it smells nice, it gives it a flavour similar to curry, and everything turns yellow!! 

Bacon: 
on a frying pan, put 1 tbsp of oil and 1/2 tbsp of butter, and put your bacon to cook. 

keep it soft and flexible, once cooked, take it out and cover it with something because if it cools down it becomes chewy and hard. 

Potatoes

 boil your potatoes and add them to the riZAtto haha. 

Bsahetkom - Bon appetit - Enjoy 

:)