Black Dog Deli review - Tomato Risotto

I really can't quite believe its Sunday already this week, I could do with cramming a few extra days in as its flown by! My eldest niece turned sweet sixteen during the week, and we had an impromptu pizza party with the aid of some flatbread's from the freezer and raiding the box of Christmas cheeses early, along with some gorgeous smoked Polish sausage - B has declared it his 2nd favourite meal after the Pork noodles I regularly make for him! Anyway I am looking at my list of half written blog posts and debating whats overdue first! And this lovely dinner we had a few weeks back won!

Prior to this particular Risotto,  I’d never bought a ready made dried risotto pack before, yes of course I had seen them, mostly in nice farm shops adorning the shelves but they often seemed a little pricey for what looked like in all honesty a bag of rice with a few herbs strewn in…but when Black Dog Deli got in touch about reviewing a few of their items included with their fabulous garlic olives was a said Tomato Risotto bag so now was the time to see if my opinion would stay the same.....

Inside the bag

It took a little while for the Risotto to make it onto the meal planner, as I kept thinking I needed to serve it up with something meaty on top but due to cost its quite rare we buy something in like lamb chops or a nice steak but the time had finally come where it was featured for a Friday night, and in my head of course I had mentioned to B to pick up some lamb steaks on the way home, as he had the car that day and I couldn’t get to the shops..  unfortunately B is not telepathic as hoped for and I was faced with coming up with an alternative.. which after a rummage in the fridge produced nothing however there were some garlic doughballs leftover from the previous night, and who can resist some carb on carb action?

So I simply cooked it as it was, at the end. And it was blinking gorgeous! Full of sweet, and earthy tomato flavour and ready in around 25 minutes with an odd stir here and there. No faffing about with sweating onions with tears it really was so simple to make. You start by heating a little oil, adding the packet, a good splosh of vino blanco (my last bargain bottle bought on my ferry back from Jersey this summer!) and some stock (I used a veggie stock pot): 

  

Simmer away whilst the remaining wine magically disappears...

Then at the very end adorning with a little diced butter and a handful of freshly grated parmesan:

And that's about it! A perfect, no faff but fabulous Friday night dinner! 

The only problem I have now is that most of the stockists are miles away from me so it will be a while before we meet again ........ but we will be on holiday with family at Christmas and only a few towns away from a stockist! Yippee! *However you can order online too!

Many thanks to the team at Mad As A March Hare Ltd for my samples!

Disclaimer: I was provided with the products for review and this is not a sponsored posting, all opinions remain the property of Anne's Kitchen