refrigerator leftover vegetable risotto

We have four or five whole books devoted just to risotto, as well as many other Italian cookbooks with risotto sections, more great recipes than you can count. But when you come home and open the fridge, your possibilities are limited. That's why we advocate the impulse-creative flexibility style of cooking—fake it with what you've got on hand.

These leftovers were discovered in the refrigerator one night:

ingredients

leftovers
1 onion (well, not really a leftover but a staple)
1 stalk celery
1 clove garlic (ditto, we try never to run out of this)
1 plum tomato
1 small yellow squash
additives
2 T olive oil
1 T butter
1 cup arborio rice
1/2 c white wine
1 vegetable cube
1 T parsley
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 c freshly grated parmigiano

instructions

  1. Start a teapot of about 4 cups of water boiling and reduce to a simmer when it starts doing just that.
  2. Shred the leftover veggies coarsely with a magic hand shredder or food processor.
  3. Sauté the chopped onion and celery and pressed garlic in olive oil and butter for a while.
  4. Add the chopped tomato, carrot and squash and continue sauté-ing.
  5. Stir in the rice and mix it up a bit, then the wine. Evaporate the wine and then start adding boiling water a half cup or so at a time, with the veggie cube or paste with the first shot.
  6. Continue for about 20 minutes of this phase. Taste the rice.
  7. At the end when you think it is done, add a little more boiling water if it is not sufficiently a touch liquidy, recalling that some water will continue to dissipate through the next step and until serving time.
  8. Remove from heat and stir in parsley for color, salt and pepper to taste, and the cheese. Let sit one minute and serve.

notes

  1. This was 2 months after the honeymoon. Not that this fact adds anything much to the recipe.
rlorsto.htm: 28-oct-2000 [what, ME cook? © 1984 dr bob enterprises]