Tuscan Comfort Food- Risotto al Pomodoro

Winter weather is finally kicking in slowly. The temperature is dropping but the sun is still shining. We are expecting snow this week, so from spring to winter now. In my garden the violets were just starting to bloom and the roses had also been blooming like crazy.

I noticed that the irises were also starting to poke out their long spiky leaves. Hope the freezing weather doesn’t cause too much havoc.
I adore winter for the bitter greens, oranges and comfort food it brings with it.

I was telling my husband about a wonderful dish of pasta I remember fro a trattoria on the Arno river called Il Cigno. They served a hot, hot, hot plate of spaghetti with tomato sauce with a raw egg yolk on top. You stirred the egg in as soon as you got the plate of pasta in front of you, sort of a tomato carbonara. Andrea told me his mom did that for them with tomato risotto. I had to try it. I adore simple recipes and love recreating my mother-in-law Tina’s dishes for my husband.

I made a simple classic non stir risotto, I used Vialone Nano, a short grained rice and canned tomatoes. Once you learn to make risotto non-stir, you won’t go back!

You start with a base of something like an onion, garlic or leek. Brown in olive oil, then add the rice to toast the rice. Then add the liquid. For this recipe, I use a whole can of tomatoes, you can puree them if you like first. I tend to crush them while they are heating and leave small bits. You can add basil. I season with salt, since I am not using broth.

When the risotto is done, like for the pasta, I plated it up For my husband, I put the yolk right on the rice and let him stir in it and add his own parmigiano. For myself, I made a little nest of parmgiano and placed the yolk in the nest.

It was a huge success. Really a one dish meal. I used 1 cup of rice for the two of us, and 1 small can of tomatoes and it was a huge portion.