Risotto Milanese with Garlic Scapes

My family is into risotto. Big time.

Last night's version was my take on a risotto milanese - the classic. Homemade stock is key here because the flavours are so delicate.

What you do is follow my basic recipe and add a pinch of saffron threads while you're cooking it. No veg other than the onions and garlic. A glug of white wine in with the stock and lots of parmesan at the end.

And that's your Risotto Milanese. Except this week I had some garlic scapes from the markets. What is a garlic scape, I hear you ask? Here'a bad photo of some:

You can only get them at farmer's markets and only for a limited season. They are the curly tops of hardneck garlic plants which are cut to strengthen the bulb. They also have a marvelous garlic-y flavour. Chop them up and put them in anything that you'd put Asparagus in (they take about the same amount of time to cook).

Anyway. I chopped some up and put them into my risotto towards the end of the cooking. And it was divine! I love seasonal produce, don't you?

Sweet Potato and Sausage Risotto

Isn't risotto the ultimate comfort food? Starchy, creamy and yummy! The other night we had a craving for it and I came up with this combo. The nice thing is that some of the sweet potato stays chunky and some dissolves into the creaminess. The pesto to finish is optional, but yummy. I really only added it because I wanted some green on the plate.

• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1-2 cups Arborio rice, depending on your hunger level!
• Stock - a tetrapak or homemade
• 1 medium Sweet Potato, cubed (1cm cubes)
• 2-3 sausages - Italian is nice
• butter
• Salt and Pepper
• Parmesan and Pesto to serve

Squeeze your sausages out of the skins and roll into balls. Fry them in a little olive oil and set aside (doesn't have to be entirely cooked through). 

Saute your onion in a fair bit of olive oil until soft. Add your rice, sweet potato and garlic and cook for a couple of minutes, until the rice is well coated with oil and heated up. Add some salt and pepper.

Now technically you should have your stock simmering in an adjacent pot, ready to be ladled in. I never bother with this. But feel free to do it if you're a purist. Put a ladleful of stock into the rice and stir until it is absorbed. Repeat. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Count on this stirring/ladling process to take about 40 mins. If you eat this meal often, then also count on your forearms looking like Popeye's. You'll know when it is done because the rice will be cooked. At this point, stop adding the stock and let it absorb the bulk of the liquid, though you will be left with a creaminess between the grains.

Towards the end, add the meatballs. If they were fully cooked then throw them in right at the end. If they are a bit raw, then add them during the stock/stir process.

To finish, add a good dob of butter. Like 2-4 Tbs. Yes. That much. Spoon into a bowl, grate parm (we didn't have any that day) and put a blob of pesto on the top.

P.S. Stay tuned for my cheat's microwave risotto!