strawberry risotto?

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ingredients

instructions

notes

1. bob first had this in Rome and was immediately won over. It was repeated a few times in the early days but why don't we remember to try it again lately? We should.
2. So we did. Except that the dr bob team is a bit lazy about reading ahead so the berry cleaning and leaf and core removal operation was nearly finished on a 1.5 pint container when finally the "1/3 c strawberries per 1 c rice" fact emerged. Hmm. Consulting the original recipe in the cookbook, it had been scaled down from 1.5 c rice so a few berries were eaten on the spot to reduce the recipe ready quantity to a pint and the rice was increased to about 1.75 c (the rest of the risotto bag), still way more strawberries than suggested, but so what.
3. The Armagnac bottle came out—the only cognac we have—but it was a bit low and also kind of expensive in the cognac family, so the dry Marsala wine won out this time.
4. The result was just as tasty as the memory.
5. Continuing experience shows that these ingredient amounts are only suggestive. We usually use a cup of cleaned chopped strawberries for a cup or cup and a half of rice, and the next time we threw in 4oz of chopped white mushrooms just after the strawberries. The strawberries soon turn to slop while cooking—the mushrooms don't seem to mind. After the latter are cooked a bit, the recipe continues with the rice-mixing and alcohol dumping stuff. The Armagnac was even lower by this time, but we gave it a shot. Not a noticeable change. But the mushrooms were a nice touch, sort of like the radicchio and mushroom risotto.
6. 2012 update.
   This time we used a cup of pathetic looking diced strawberries and 1/4 c Marsala. Served it with garlicky kale and borlotti beans with a little red pepper and nutmeg for an extra kick. This time, a camera was ready to document the occasion:
   Illustrations available.