About the Recipe
This is a delicious lemony risotto that makes for a perfect light lunch. If you would like to have any kind of protein with it, mussels make for a perfect addition!
Ingredients
For the Broth
1 Lemon worth of lemon zest
2 bay leaves
Healthy pinch of salt
500ml of water (or roughly 2/3 of a medium sized pot)
For the rice
80g per portion of carnaroli rice (substitute for risotto rice if you cannot find this and, at a pinch, any rice would work)
For the mussels
1 packet of frozen cooked mussels or around a dozen fresh mussels
Preparation
Make the broth: simply combine the lemon zest, bay leaves and water and boil for around 20-30 minutes vigorously
Toast the rice: remove the rice from the packet and add to a pan. Start applying medium-high heat for a couple of minutes until the rice becomes slightly shiny.
Cook the rice in the broth: reduce the heat on your pan to a low. Add a splash of white whine to the rice (around 1 glass worth). Add half your broth to the toasted rice in the pan. You could in theory add it ladel by ladel until the rice is al dente, but if you add half your broth it will have the same effect. Once you can see no more water add a ladel of broth. Keep adding broth until the rice is still toothsome but soft (or to your preferred doneness) - usually around 25-30 minutes.
Finish the dish: take your rice off the heat and add a drizzle of olive oil. Mix in the juice of the zested lemon allowing it to cook slightly in the residual heat to prevent the lemon flavour from being over-powering.
Add pepper to taste and if you want further creaminess a tiny knob of butter.
Optional Mussels
Cook your mussels using the broth and add to your rice once you have finished cooking it.