shrimp and pea risotto with bacon and rocket

Risotto is one of those dishes that's actually super simple but looks awesome and fancy. Yesterday, I whipped up some of this shrimp and pea risotto fairly quickly with stuff that I had lying around in my pantry. Like all recipes, anyone can change anything to suit their personal preference, and I eyeballed most of my measurements but this general outline serves two.

Ingredients...

- arborio rice

- onion

- garlic cloves

- chicken stock cube

- shrimp

- peas

- bacon

- fresh basil

- rocket

- white wine

- salt and pepper

- butter

How to...

- Heat up a dash of butter into a medium saucepan, along with the arborio rice, diced onion and garlic.

- Once the rice looks "toasted" and the onions translucent, throw in a cup of water and the chicken stock cube, and stir as needed.

- Keep an eye on the pan and add a second cup of water and a dash of white wine once the previous water has been absorbed.

- Add in the fresh basil, salt and pepper to taste, shrimp, bacon and peas, then stir.

- Throw in the rocket once everything looks pretty much done, wait for it to wilt, then you're good to go!

Seriously, risotto is not hard to cook - people make it sound complicated but it really isn't. This is pretty much the general outline for any risotto and you can switch anything out for everything. I've also made risotto in an oven too, which takes longer, but is great when you need to make a huge batch for a large party.

lake como

When I was in Parma, we took a short little day trip to Lake Como. Unfortunately, the ferries to the center of the lake were decided to go on strike, but we found a ferry captain who was bored enough to take us on a short little circle to see some of the beautiful Italian mansions on the waterfront. Spent the rest of the day wandering the lake side, and grabbed some seafood at an outdoor restaurant, before departing the lake after dusk.

parma

Over last spring break, I jumped at the chance of visiting my friend Carol who was studying abroad in Italy. Parma = hello Parma ham and Parmesan cheese, two of my favourite food items in the world. Parma is probably the least-touristy place I've ever been to; I was walking around with my big DSLR and had locals giving me funny looks. I spent my few days there drinking lambrusco, eating cheese, ham, and some of the best gelato in the world. If you ever head to Parma, Emilia's has to be one of your stops, literally the dreamiest gelato in my life. I had the most phenomenal Napoleon gelato there, crunchy puff pastry included, pretty sure I gained about five pounds within a few days there. 

 

italian meatballs

I recently photographed an Italian Meatball recipe for the NYU division of Spoon University. Here are a few snippets but check out the full recipe here! I ended up sauteeing some rocket in the pan to add a bit of greenery and then boiled some pasta which turn it into a pasta bake, hence the last image.

focaccia

This is just a quick shot of some focaccia my sister and I made at midnight. I don't have the recipe as she found a random one online and we put our own twist on it -- cherry tomatoes, garlic and a crap ton of basil.

simple fettuccine

After two years of cooking for myself at university, I thought I would share one of my favourite "I just got back from the world's longest class, I am starving and I just want to throw something quick together" pasta recipes as well as one of my personal favourite dishes in general. It's one of the simplest things you can throw together, hence simple fettuccine, because it's only a few ingredients thrown together and sautéed off in a pan and honestly takes about 15 minutes. This time, I used fettuccine as it's what was present at home, though I also think it's an easy way to make pasta dishes seem extra snazzy compared to the typical spaghetti or penne.

Ingredients...

- fettuccine

- chicken sausage

- rocket

- fresh basil

- salt and pepper

- butter

- olive oil

- milk

- garlic

- onion

How to...

- In a pot, boil the fettuccine in salted water, the water should be as salty as seawater to stop the pasta from being too bland.

- Once the pasta has been cooked, strain the pasta out but remember to keep some of that starchy cooking water for later.

- Heat up a knob of butter in a flat pan and throw in the chopped garlic and onion to soften and brown, if the butter starts to burn, add a bit of olive oil.

- Add the chicken sausage and sauté until it gets browned and heated through (if it has already been precooked, otherwise boiling it prior to sautéing it would be helpful).

- Add the fettuccine, salt and pepper to taste, and I like to add a dash of milk to give the pasta some dimension.

- Add in the rocket, basil, and a splash of the starchy cooking water if your pan is looking a bit dry. (But feel free to add more milk in if you want to give it a bit more weight.)

- Give it a final stir and plate up!

As with all recipes, this is simply a guideline or inspiration depending on how creative you are in the kitchen. You can by all means swap the fettucine for spaghetti or fusilli - whatever floats your boat or is in your pantry, and you can use chicken breast in place of chicken sausage, shallots instead of onions, spinach instead of rocket, etc., it really doesn't matter. Because the person eating it is going to be you so don't go about making a recipe with ingredients that you only half-like. Anyway, I hope this post has been somewhat inspiring, so enjoy!

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