Pepper and Courgette Risotto with Vermouth

From Perfect Risotto, Hermes House, 2004.

I do enjoy a risotto and hence cook them frequently enough to have mastered the basic cooking technique. When I use a cookery book it’s to try out a different mix of ingredients and their quantities. Once I have them it’s a reasonably simple matter to go ahead with the cooking.

For this recipe it needed two courgettes and one green capsicum with 250g of basmati rice. I used a little less than 200g because I generally prefer my risotto to have a balance that has a larger quantity of other ingredients to the rice. Dry white vermouth was needed for the final touch.

Unusually, this recipe used no white wine after frying the onion and garlic but went straight into using stock. The chopped vegetables were added at the second addition of stock.

When the rice was cooked grated parmesan was added together with a tablespoon of vermouth.

This was a risotto with plenty of flavour. The courgettes went really well with the rice and the vermouth added an overtone that was quite interesting.

The book is a small 64-page paperback that was picked up at one of those cheap book stalls that occasionally pop up at shopping centres. I seem to have several in my collection as I just don’t seem to be able to pass by cookery books on sale. While it is not a vegetarian cook book most of the recipes are vegetarian, including a good mix and some that look definitely worth trying.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔