This may look like a badly photoographed, and inherently unphotogenetic bowl of risotto. And whilst it is that, it's also a lot more. For one, it crosses off one of the items on my Things to Do In Melbourne list I've got stuck up on the fridge; namely "Learn how to make risotto".
Believe it ir not, I've never made risotto before. Whilst I've eaten plenty, they were always made by the now-ex-boyfriend (who from henceforth shall be known as Neb on this blog). Risotto was always one of his special dishes to make, and to be fair he was pretty damn good at it. So learning how to make it myself was something I never had to think about.
Most restaurant risottos are awful - they are either lukewarm, too watery, don't have enough tasty filling bits, or have at least one ingredient that I don't like in them (hello Pumpkin!!!). Unless I have reason to believe a restaurant's risotto is going to be amazing, it's not something I would risk ordering off the menu. Too much of a gamble!
Given that it's now over 6 months since Neb and I have been together, that means that's its been over 6 months since I've eaten risotto. In summertime I didn't even notice the lack of risotto from my diet, but now that we are well and truly in the midst of a freezing cold winter, there are some nights when a warm bowl full of creamy rice and veggies would just hit the spot perfectly.
So I finally decided that the lack of risotto in my diet had gone on far too seriously long enough by half. The only thing for it was to give it a go and just see what happens. I spent some time googling around, and finally came up with a few candidate first-timer risotto recipes from taste.com.au, finally settling on this recipe for Spinach and Sweet Potato Risotto.
The verdict? Yum. I might try a few other recipes before considering making this exact one again, but now that I've gotten over my initial risotto fear, there's no stopping me! Just one more thing I don't need a man in my life for, right?
