Zucchini Risotto with Goat Cheese


We're dealing with an overload of zucchini, last year it rained too much and the zucchini in my parent's garden couldn't thrive. This year they're giving us more zucchini than we know what to do with. We've been trying to come up with new recipes to use the zucchini in fun and different ways. I wouldn't have thought to include zucchini in risotto, but we were very happy with how this recipe turned out.

Recipe from A Family Feast


Ingredients:
-1 teaspoon olive oil
-4 cups vegetable stock,
-1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
-1 pound zucchini, trimmed and cut into ¼ inch pieces
-4 medium garlic cloves, thickly sliced
-1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or to your preference)
-1/2 cup yellow onion, diced fine
-1 cup Aborio rice
-1 cup white wine
-1 tablespoon each of fresh basil and parsley, minced
-2 plum tomatoes, seeded, cored and diced small
-4 ounce package goat cheese
-1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

In a medium pot, heat the vegetable stock until it's warmed through, you'll want it to be hot, but not boiling.

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium high heat and add zucchini -- cook for 8-10 minutes or until browned. Next add the garlic slices and pepper flakes and cook one minute. Add onions and cook for 6-7 minutes until soft.

Add rice and stir to coat with the oil. Add wine and cook until almost all of the liquid has been absorbed.

Once the wine is almost absorbed, add herbs and one cup of the hot stock and cook and stir until absorbed. Repeat by adding the tomatoes and one more cup of stock, cook until almost absorbed.
Repeat this for two more cups of stock, one cup at a time and letting that absorb before adding the next. All of this hot stock absorption is where the magic of risotto happens.

The last two cups of stock should be added one quarter cup at a time, cooking between each addition. You'll want the rice to be creamy, but not drowning in liquid. If the rice is cooked and creamy, you may not need to add the last cup of stock -- I find that almost always when making risotto that I do not use the last cup of stock.

Remove from heat and stir in the goat cheese and Parmesan cheese.



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