Summer Garden Recipes: Tomato Basil Risotto

With tomatoes coming in consistently from my garden, I have been fortunate enough to make some fresh and delightful recipes using the produce from my backyard. I found this recipe in my somewhat old The Best of Food and Wine (1986). After making this recipe, I became obsessed with coring and boiling my tomatoes for a few minutes to get the skin off. I think there is a technical term for what that is called to boil the tomato to get the skin off, but I didn't feel like looking it up to see what it is called. Sorry :).

The recipe is as follows:

Tomato-Basil Risoto
5 cups chicken stock or 2 1/2 cups canned broth diluted with 2 1/2 cups water
5 tbsp unsalted butter
1 medium onion finely chopped
1/3 cup or 3 oz prosciutto or smoked diced ham
2 tablespoons tomato puree
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Salt to taste
1 1/2 lbs plum tomatoes peeled, seeded, and coarsely chopped (I used Romas)
1/4 cup shredded basil leaves

1. Core the tomatoes. Bring water to a boil in a pot large enough to hold all of the tomatoes. Place the tomatoes in the pot of boiling water. Once the skin of the tomatoes begins to peel away from the flesh, remove the tomatoes and cool them. Once they are cool enough to handle, remove the skins, and coarsely chop. I also used one of the tomatoes for the tomato puree required in the recipe. I took 1/2 of a Roma tomato, and ran it through a food processor.

2. Bring the stock to a simmer and keep it at a simmer over low heat. You will use the stock for cooking the risotto.

3. In a large noncorrodible pan, melt 3 tablespoons of the butter. Add the onion and prosciutto or ham to the pan, and saute until the onion is soft and translucent--about 3 minutes.

4. Add the tomato puree to the onion/ham, and cook for a minute.

5. Add the rice and cook to coat the rice with the butter and tomato puree for 1-2 minutes.

6. Add 1/2 cup of the hot stock to the rice and cook, stirring constantly until the rice has absorbed the liquid. Continue to add 1/2 cups of stock as the rice absorbs it. Maintain a simmer during the cooking process of the rice. This should take 20-25 minutes, and the rice should be tender, but still crunchy after 20-25 minutes.

7. Add the cheese and season with the pepper and salt. Continue to cook, stirring and adding stock until the rice is tender but firm, and a creamy sauce has been created. This should take 3-6 minutes longer.

8. Stir in tomatoes, basil, and the remaining 2 tbsp of butter. Serve immediately.

Hello Deliciousness! I couldn't get a close-up without the steam getting in the way. Hopefully you can see the large tomato chunk in front.