Tonight, I made a favorite recipe from some of my local produce: Baked Risotto with Asparagus, Spinach and Parmesan, from Patricia Wells’ Trattoria
cookbook. Unlike your typical risotto recipe, this one is baked, which significantly reduces the labor involved. I think it’s fine as a standalone meatless dish, but it’s great on the side, too, perhaps with some of my leftover chicken… Anyway, here’s my (very slight) adaptation of Wells’ recipe.
Baked Risotto with Spinach and Asparagus
- 4 cups loosely packed fresh spinach
- 8-12 asparagus spears (about 8 ounces)
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup minced onion
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup arborio rice
- 2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/2 cup (2 ounces) freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Thoroughly wash, rinse, dry and chop spinach. Trim clean asparagus spears of woody ends, then cut stalks into 1-inch pieces. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Combine oil, onion and salt in large saucepan over medium heat. Stir and cook until onion is soft, 3-4 minutes. Add rice, and stir to coat with oil. Add stock, spinach, asparagus, nutmeg and additional salt, if desired. Bring just to a simmer. Stir in half the cheese.
Transfer mixture to a 1- or 1.5-quart baking dish and smooth top. Sprinkle remaining cheese over, then cover dish. Bake 35-40 minutes on middle rack, or until rice is cooked through and has absorbed the liquid. Rice should be moist. Serve at once. Makes 4-6 servings.
I’ve made this recipe for years, and the only time it wasn’t a huge success was when it got dried out sitting in someone else’s oven.
Mike // May 11, 2007 at 9:49 am
We were lucky enough to share this risotto with Janet … and it was terrific. It went well with fried chicken, steak and salmon!
Janet Majure // May 15, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Thanks to Rachel for letting me know in an amazingly diplomatic way that this recipe, as I originally published it here, was a BIG change from Wells’s recipe, seeing as I left out the arborio rice from the ingredients list. It’s in there now. Hope the omission didn’t deter too many people! While I’m at it, I might as well give you this link, which explains what arborio rice is as well as this link if you want to buy arborio rice online
(which will benefit me a few cents). Pick just plain old arborio rice, not a mix.
Make-ahead meal works for flexible schedule, food allergies // Mar 31, 2008 at 10:22 am
[...] menu decision: Chicken Marbella from the The Silver Palate Cookbook; Baked Risotto with Asparagus, Spinach and Parmesan, from Patricia Wells’ Trattoria cookbook; Poached Pears with toasted pecans and chocolate. The [...]