Red Pepper Risotto a la Riggs Place

Leland and I moved into a new apartment over the weekend (big step), and last night we broke in the kitchen! We made a red pepper risotto and it was pretty tasty, but definitely could use improvement. We actually found that the addition of the parmesan at the end made the biggest difference.

1 red bell pepper diced
1/2 a large red onion diced
3 cloves garlic minced
~3 tbs extra virgin olive oil
2 cups dry arborio rice
~1 cup dry white wine (we used a Chardonnay)
4+ cups of vegetable stock and water
1+ cup of parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste... we added a lot of black pepper and not too much salt because the broth and parm are salty

The major change I would make would be to add one more entire red bell pepper... it wasn't quite as "peppery" as it has been when I have made this before.

So, in a med/ large sauce pan heat the oil, saute the pepper and onion in the olive oil until just soft about 10 min on medium heat.

Meanwhile in a small sauce pan heat about the vegetable broth and water on med high heat. It doesn't need to boil.

To the pepper and onion, add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add more oil if needed (there should be enough to coat the rice), stir in the rice and coat it in the oil and heat through for 30 seconds to a minute. Stir in a cup or more of white wine, enough to cover the rice and then some. Stir until all of the wine is absorbed, then add two ladles of the heated broth, stir frequently until absorbed and add two more ladles (now would be a good time to salt and pepper). Repeat the ladling process until the rice will not absorb more liquid and it is just tender, you don't want mushy risotto. This will take about half an hour, so get started on the rest of the wine! When the rice is done, turn off the heat and stir in the parmesan and serve (with another sprinkle of parm of course).

This was pretty delicious, but like I said not "red peppery" enough so I would use 2 red bell peppers instead, but I think it could also benefit from a dash of red pepper flakes.

Yum :).