Risotto with Pesto and Peas

I have a thing for risotto.  I think it may have started shortly after our third anniversary.  Rob took me to this super nice restaurant and I had the most AMAZING roasted shallot risotto that I still daydream about almost six years later. *sigh*

Where was I?  Yeah, so I've tried to make risotto here and there; not too often because it does require quite a bit of attention as you ladle in the hot liquid and stir.  But sometimes I'm willing to make the time sacrifice because, dang it, my mouth wants the results!

This particular risotto recipe caught my eye for two reasons: 1) it calls for ham, which I knew I'd have plenty of after a certain recent holiday.  And 2) it also uses pesto, which I try to always have hanging around in my freezer because it's AWESOME.

Risotto with Pesto and Peas
Recipe adapted from Food Network Magazine

1-3 leeks (white and light green parts only), depending on their size, thinly sliced
6 cups water
Salt
2 tbsp unsalted butter, divided
1 cup arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup diced ham
1/2-3/4 cup pesto, depending on how much you like pesto
2 string cheese sticks, sliced*
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

*I fully intended to use the shredded mozzarella I typically keep on-hand.  However I accidentally used it all up for Pizza Night so needed to get creative.  Thank God for the boys' snacks!

1.  Carefully rinse the leeks in cold water.  The best way I found is to fill a bowl with water and let the leek slices float in it for a while.  The sandy soil and grit will fall to the bottom of the bowl.

Sand and grit hide in ALL those layers.

Soak the leeks about 10 minutes, swishing a little to help the grit fall off.

2.  Make the broth: Bring the water and 1 teaspoon salt to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the leeks and cook until tender, 3 to 4 minutes; remove with a slotted spoon to a bowl. Adjust the heat to keep the broth at a gentle simmer.

My Observation: Honestly you could totally skip the broth part and use a good quality chicken or vegetable stock, and then some chopped green onions in lieu of the leeks. 

3.  Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon butter in a wide saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the rice and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add the wine and cook, stirring, until almost evaporated, about 1 more minute.

Toast the rice a minute for a little deeper flavor

Slowly adding liquid as this cooks helps make risotto creamy and wonderful

4.  Add 2 cups of the hot leek broth to the rice; cook, stirring occasionally, until almost absorbed, about 6 minutes (adjust the heat to keep the risotto at a simmer). Add 1 more cup broth and cook, stirring, until almost absorbed, about 5 more minutes. Add the leeks, peas and 1 more cup broth and cook, stirring, until almost absorbed, about 5 more minutes. Taste the rice: If it is not fully cooked, add a little more broth and continue to cook, stirring, until al dente.

My Observation: If you are using only 1 large leek, be careful how much of it you add back into the risotto.  You want to add about a cup of the wilted leek slices back in so if you have more in the bowl, only add part of it back in.

It may taste bland; don't season yet!!  Taste again AFTER adding the ham and cheeses.

5.  Stir in the ham and remaining 1 tablespoon butter. Remove from the heat; stir in the pesto and cheeses. Season with salt.

Hurray for leftover ham!

This turned out SO FREAKING GOOD!!!  It was creamy and lemony and a little bit salty and cheesy and just ohsoyummy.  I gave some Kieran too, because most everything in it was soft or cut into small pieces. He loved it SO MUCH that he got mad when his tray was empty and cried until I shared what was left of mine.

[Side Mommy Note: I didn't think until after dinner that pesto has nuts in it.  We watched Kieran very carefully for any kind of allergic reaction.  Had I remembered beforehand about the nuts I would not have given this to him.  So please be aware if you're thinking of sharing this with an under-2-year-old.]

Oh, and I have a confession to make.  I deliberately waited to eat some of the leftovers for lunch yesterday until after Kieran was down for a nap.  And nope, not ashamed.

Pesto Pasta Bake

I'm a big fan of recipes.  I like looking over the list of ingredients and imagining how all those flavors will combine and balance each other out.  I like seeing approximately how long it's going to take me to put the dish together.  Recipes are guidelines.  Recipes are safe.

Sometimes .....safe is BORING.

Do you ever just want to open up the fridge, root through the pantry, find a bunch of stuff to throw in a pot and have it magically come out fabulous?  Yeah, me too.  But I know my limitations and I'm not quite at That Level yet.  I'm still baby-stepping my way into making up my own recipes.  I like to keep things simple and use fool-proof ingredients that I already know I L-O-V-E.  Like pesto, pasta, and cheese.  Can't go wrong!

Pesto Pasta Bake

1 lb whole wheat penne pasta
3 cubes of frozen pesto, thawed
1 (16oz) container small curd cottage cheese
1/2 cup shredded cheddar
1 tbsp Brady Street Cheese Sprinkle

1.  Preheat the oven to 350.  Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.  Add pasta and cook according to package directions.  Reserve 1 cup of cooking liquid before draining pasta.  Set aside.

Every fall I make big batches of pesto to freeze in ice cube trays

2.  While pasta cooks, in a large bowl combine the cottage cheese, pesto, cheddar cheese, and cheese sprinkle.  Add the hot pasta, tossing to combine.  Add some of the hot pasta water if you'd like to thin out the sauce a little bit.

Cheesy, pesto-y goodness

3.  Pour the cheesed pesto pasta into a baking dish, spreading it out into an even layer.  Sprinkle on a little more cheese sprinkle if you like, or Parmasan would be fantastic if you happen to have some lying around (I did not the other day or you'd totally see Parm listed above).

4.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until the top is browned a bit and the cheese is bubbly.

Some notes...

• I think pesto adds Ah-Mazing flavor to just about anything so I love having it on-hand to use however I like.  I prefer to make my own though because it can be REALLY OILY normally.  Don't worry, you'll see my pesto recipe later on this summer...
• I always feel better about the amount of cheese I'm using if I'm combining it with whole wheat pasta instead of regular.  Plus, whole wheat adds this really great, subtle nutty flavor.
• I have a personal preference for cottage cheese over riccota.  If you're a ricotta fan though, totally use that instead.  And toss in some mozzarella too if you have that around!
• Do you have Carnivores watching over your shoulder?  Cook up a chicken breast to shred and add to the mix.  You might need more cheese and/or pasta water though to stretch the cheesiness.
• FYI, I measured NOTHING in this so my measurements above are approximations.

Pepperoni Pizza with Beer Pizza Dough

Pizza and beer.  Beer and pizza.  This is one of life's perfect pairings right?  Well why not truly bring these two together closer than ever before?

The foundation for an AWESOME pizza crust

If I have the time and energy, I like to make my own pizza.  I started playing around with making pizza when I was probably 10ish?  I can't remember my exact age but I know we were living in MD at the time so that does narrow the time frame a bit.  At first it was just messing around with toppings, finding that perfect cheese-meat-vegetable ratio.  I would always use a premade crust though.  Making pizza dough was just waaaay too hard, right?  Then a couple years ago I realized that making my own dough wasn't really as hard as I'd made it out to be.  Up until that moment, any kind of bread recipe that involved using thermometers and/or kneading was just way too much for me.

Mmmm...beer and butter

But I found a basic pizza dough recipe in a magazine; it was only four ingredients long and didn't look too bad.  So I started making it, and I enjoyed doing it, but I was still required to somewhat babysit the dough.  Gotta bloom the yeast, mix up the dough, knead the dough, let it sit and rise....  Meh, not terrible but my life is getting busier as my son gets older.  And then the epiphany came.... I discovered that my breadmaker, the one I've had for almost 8 years now, has a dough setting.  (!!!!!!!)  To the internet!!

Your house will smell amazing while this rises

I found this pizza dough recipe on one of my favorite go-to sites for recipes, made it, and haven't moved on to trying any other recipes.  I'm having too much fun with it!  I love how it not only uses beer as the main liquid (loooooooooooooooove cooking with beer), but it also encourages you to add herbs and seasonings to truly customize the dough to your tastes.

Beer Pizza Dough for Breadmaker
Recipe adapted from AllRecipes.com

[Note: you will want all of these to be room temperature.  Forget to pull stuff out?  Use the delay option on your breadmaker for at least 1 hour before it will start mixing and kneading the dough]
1 cup of semi-flat beer
2 tbsp butter
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
2 1/4 tsp yeast (or 1 of those handy packets)

UPDATE: Lately I've been using EVOO instead of butter, and swapping a 1/2 cup whole wheat flour for the same in white flour.  Love it!  I also love the flavor combination of 2 tsp garlic powder and 1 tsp dried rosemary.  

1.  Coat dough container with non-stick spray.  Put all ingredients in breadmaker according to manufacturer's specifications.  Select dough setting and hit Start.  On my machine the dough setting is about 90 minutes long.

Prepare to be mixed!

2.  Remove dough from bread machine, with lightly floured hands, when cycle is complete. Roll or press dough to cover a prepared pizza pan, or roll out on lightly floured parchment paper.  Use the flour; yes, the dough is sticky.

If you like thinner crust, this makes a rather large pizza

3.  Preheat oven to 400.  Spread sauce and toppings on dough and bake for about 23-25 minutes.

So that's my favorite dough recipe.  Now on to the pizza!  We're pretty basic at my house; Rob likes pepperoni.  Gavin likes cheese.  (Mama likes all kinds of strange combinations and vegetables so it's just easier when I'm making a family pizza to say I like pepperoni also.)  I usually end up doing pepperoni over most of the crust and leaving a meat-free section  for munchkin.

Now I could say that I just add sauce, meat, and cheese but that's not really my thing.  If I'm going to make a pizza, I'm going to Make A Pizza.  And that Pizza will have Flavor at every level.  

Pepperoni Pizza
Exact concoction from Jeanna's head

1 recipe beer pizza dough (see above)
1 (8oz) can tomato sauce
1 tbsp pesto 
Turkey pepperoni
Mozzarella cheese
Cheddar cheese
Parmesan, grated


1.  My pizza sauce is a wonderful little trick I think every busy cook needs to know about: 1 can of tomato sauce with approximately 1 tbsp of pesto.  Stir together and voila!  You have pizza/marinara/breadstick dipping sauce in about 30 seconds. 

Every summer I make pesto and freeze it in ice cube trays.

2.  Spread a layer of sauce around the pizza dough.  Don't slather on too thick or the crust will be soggy. 

 

3.  I cannot tolerate a lot of grease, which is why I get turkey pepperoni instead of regular.  Since I get a lower-fat meat, I feel better about loading up the pizza the way I know Rob likes.  So I put a first layer of pepperoni on the sauce, generously sprinkle on some mozzarella, and then add a second layer of pepperoni. 

See the little section for Gavin?

4.  Sprinkle on a little more mozzarella, a little cheddar for color and flavor, and finally some Parmesan to get that lovely crispy brown topping. 

5.  You can bake the pizza at this point, but why stop the flavor here?  I have this awesome herb pizza  topping that I love.  However I've also used just dried oregano too (or use some dried Italian seasoning).  Just a little sprinkle on top for that final bang of flavor.

There's red pepper flakes in this too; love that spicy kick!

6. Bake pizza and let sit for about 5 minutes before slicing.  Enjoy!

Golden, cheesy, meaty deliciousness