A glass of wine with my Gammon, Pea and Cos Lettuce Risotto

To my regular readers, apologies if this recipe sounds a little familiar ....for I am re-posting this recipe from my Arrancini thread, as I missed out an essential part - the wine!

Recently Sainsbury's sent me a little selection of their single serve wines, which I find great if you just fancy a glass of wine with dinner...or whenever without feeling compelled to drink the rest... something that age and shift patterns do not mix with! Its also a great way to discover new wines or indeed revisit old favourites!

I am more a red wine drinker if anything, as I find a lot of white wines to acidic to drink or so sweet my teeth go brr at but I was very pleased to find one of the bottles was their Macon Villages. I had not bought it in a long time but it reminded me that its one of the few whites I really like - dry, crisp maybe a hint of lemon and the tartness of Chardonnay without being a footballers wife! (I know its trashy but I still miss that show!) As I also had work the next morning, my large glass  was more than enough to enjoy with the meal! 

Whilst the wine was a bit of a treat with dinner, it was a fairly frugal recipe as you have come to expect with me - the lettuce was withering in the salad draw making its escape plan (Salad and Winter are not best buddies!) and the small amount of gammon was left from a large joint we had a few weeks back everything else was in the store cupboard.

Risotto recipe:

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp olive oil

1 finely chopped onion

50ml vermouth

225g arborio rice

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup frozen peas

2 slices cooked gammon finely chopped

2 heaped tbsp grana padano (or parmesan) grated

2 cos lettuce leaves, shredded

1 knorr herb stock pot into 1.5 pints boiling water

1) Melt the butter and oil, gently cook the onion and garlic without colouring, stir in the vermouth and allow to evaporate. 

2) Stir in the rice and allow it to fully coat in the liquid, add a small amount of the stock to coat and allow to cook, once the liquid has evaporated, repeat the process gently stirring through until its almost cooked through. 

3) Meanwhile place the peas in a jug with some of the remaining stock and cook for 3-4 minutes, stir it all into the risotto with the gammon pieces and lettuce, it should of absorbed most of the liquid now and be slightly loose in consistency. Remove from the heat and stir in the cheese leaving a little for garnish.

Serve either on its own or with garlic bread if you like to break the rules...

The tang of Macon Villages wine worked really well with the creaminess of the risotto, they didn't compete and made a very tasty pairing! Unfortuntely winter is here with its dark nights and I resorted to going out onto the landing in an attempt to get a picture. The things us bloggers do...

Many thanks to Kate at Sainsbury's for my wine!