Sunday Evening Supper

This summer reminds me in many ways of the summer that we were married....terribly rainy! We were lucky because we had the one gloriously sunny and dry Saturday in August, and this year the rain seems less torrential, but very frequent. This afternoon was one of those times when the sky was dark and yet the light bright somehow, so you could hardly see the rain at all, just hear the gentle hiss of it, and smell it on the air.

On Sunday evenings I like gentle wind-down cooking, and on rainy Sundays I like something sustaining. I am also rather fond of storecupboard cookery, so this recipe for Tomato and Chilli Risotto ticked every box!

Gently fry an one diced onion in a little oil until soft. Stir in 200g arborio rice. Empty a tin of chopped tomatoes into a pyrex jug and make up to 1 litre with boiling water. Pour a generous splash of this into the rice and onion mixture. Stir until the rice absorbs the liquid, then add some more. Keep doing this until about half of the liquid has been used up. Then stir in 2tsp dried mixed herbs before carrying on with the rest of the tomatoey liquid. Just before you add the last of the liquid, stir in a teacup of frozen peas then add the last of the liquid. All of this stirring and adding should take about 20 minutes. Stir in 1 tsp lazy chillies (or 1 chopped chilli) and some torn basil. Check for seasoning and serve.

You can vary this recipe according to what your storecupboard yields. For example, you can add in chopped celery with the onion at the beginning, you might prefer sweetcorn to frozen peas, and if you have some grated cheese, that is very nice to add in at the end.

This is enough to serve 2, with leftovers to make into fried risotto balls another day. If I was doing that, I might put a small chunk of mozzarella in the middle of each ball, and would serve with a green salad. Be sure to get the rice piping hot throughout if you are reheating to avoid food poisoning!

Right, time to hang up my apron for the evening, and off for a bath in the Lavender and Bergamot bubble bath that I had delivered with my groceries this morning....have a lovely evening!