Gorgonzola Risotto with peas, mushrooms and broad beans - IMBB #11

It’s that time again – Is My Blog Burning? is here. The current edition is hosted by Cathy at My Little Kitchen and the theme? Beans. Beans?!? But, I don’t like beans! Any beans! Or at least, so I thought. I really detest most of the food in this category, I’m sad to say. Most beans are mealy and I can’t stand that texture. However. Not all beans are like that. Just most. When in Spain, I’ve discovered the most lovely little “Habas baby” in the frozen food section. They’re fava beans, or broad beans as they’re sometimes called. Here in Sweden, they’re called bondbönor, peasant beans. That doesn’t help though, because you can’t find them here. Or at least I can’t. I guess they’re available fresh for about two weeks in the summer, but you can’t find them dried or frozen. (Although I *did* find some canned ones, just today! Will try!)

So, I asked my dad to bring some frozen ones back from Spain with him. He did. They’re happily residing in my freezer, coming out for special occasions. And what would be a special occasion if not IMBB #11? Also, I happened to have my sister and her fiancé Peter over for dinner, and it was a perfect opportunity to cook. Seeing that I had recently acquired a bunch of new cookbooks I decided to use one of them – Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Heaven – and cook a risotto. I adapted the recipe slightly, drastically cutting down on the butter actually, and adding mushrooms but otherwise stuck pretty close to it.



Gorgonzola Risotto with peas, mushrooms and broad beans
Serves 4 – with enough leftovers for at least one lunch
400 g Arborio rice
1 liter good vegetable stock
25 g of butter (Ramsay suggested 100 g)
olive oil
1 onion, chopped
300 g button mushrooms, halved or quartered depending on size
150 g cooked small green peas
150 g cooked broad beans/fava beans
50 g parmesan cheese, grated
75 g gorgonzola cheese, diced
2 tbsp dry white wine
salt, pepper

Melt the butter and a little bit of olive oil in a large pan. Cook the onion until soft. Add the rice, and stir well. Add the mushrooms. Add some of the stock, and working as with any risotto, stir well and keep adding stock as the liquid absorbs into the rice. It takes at least 15 minutes, probably a little bit more. Keep tasting it – the rice should be soft but not mushy. Add the wine, the peas, the beans and the parmesan. Take off the heat, and add the gorgonzola. Season with salt and white pepper, and serve to your happy and well-deserving company.

Now, I’m looking forward to reading all your bean recipes, and hopefully finding a few things I won’t be too scared to try myself!