152 Baked Courgette and "Tamed" Mushroom Risotto

I got a couple of cook books for christmas, and "Ramsay's Best Menus" was one of them, so I thought I had to try and make something out of it. And it turned out pretty darn tasty, I must say! Originally it should have been made with wild mushrooms, but there were none in sight this Sunday afternoon, so I made it 50/50 with button mushrooms and chestnut mushrooms, trying to slice them nicely for extra texture and presentation.

152 Baked Courgette and "Tamed" Mushroom Risotto
(Serves 4, about 400 calories each)

4 courgettes
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 large garlic cloves, finely sliced
Basil sprigs, leaves only, finely chopped
2-3 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
A squeeze of lemon juice
550-600 ml vegetable- or chicken stock
200 g arborio rice
100 ml dry white wine
200 g mushrooms, preferably wild, but like I mentioned I used 100 g of each button- and chestnut mushrooms - cleaned and halved, sliced if they are quite large
2-3 tbsp freshly grated parmesan

- Heat oven to 200°C, and line a large baking tray with foil.

-Half the cougettes lengthways, and slice it criss-cross over the surcafe of each courgette, it looks rather fancy! Now, place them on the baking tray - cut side up, and season with a little salt and pepper, followed by garlic slices and basil. Finish off with a drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice. Bake for 30-40 minutes until they're roasted.

- In the meantime, you can chop the mushrooms, and make everything prepared. Boil up water and resolve the stock, leave it in a small pan on the side.

- Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large pan and add the risotto rice, stir for about a minute before adding the wine. Bubble it up and as soon as it has soaked up most of the wine, add a ladleful of the stock and stir. Now you can chop up your courgettes nicely and leave them until they're required. Stir regularly!

- Keep feeding the risotto with a little stock at a time, wait until it has absorbed it almost fully before adding more, this will give it a really nice, creamy texture.

- Once out of stock the rice should still be a little tough, but close to cooked, turn off the heat, stir in the chopped courgettes and leave for a few minutes.

- Now is a great time to get a frying pan out, heat up about 1 tbsp of olive oil and fry the mushrooms with a little salt and pepper. Leave them for about 3-4 minutes until they're starting to release their juices.

- If desired, add a little more stock to the risotto as you turn the hob on a low heat to heat it up. Season with salt and pepper to taste (I only needed to add a little bit of each, but it made all the difference!), grate in most of the parmesan and stir in the mushrooms - you can save a little for garnish if you want.

- Divide the risotto between four deep plates or shallow bowls and top with a little grated parmesan, and optionally some of the mushroom if you reserved some of it. Enjoy - I know I sure did!

Original source:
Ramsay's Best Menus, NO 152

- Jules

PS. For a vegan risotto, just opt out on the parmesan, it will still be really creamy!