Pea and Feta Risotto
The risotto with peas, creamed with feta cheese, is a springtime first course with a fresh and delicate flavor.
Ingredients
- 360 g carnaroli rice
- 200 g fresh peas already shelled
- 100 g feta cheese or spreadable cheese like crescenza or stracchino
- 1 carrot
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- extra virgin olive oil
- salt
Instructions
- Boil the vegetables. Blanch the fresh peas for a few minutes in abundant boiling salted water, with an onion, a carrot and two cloves of garlic. Remove the legumes with a slotted spoon, keeping the cooking water with the onion and carrot in the pan.
- Blend the peas. Blend 2/3 of the peas with a little cooking water and a couple of spoons of extra virgin olive oil until you obtain a smooth semi-dense cream.
- Toast the peas and rice. In a saucepan, quickly brown the other blanched peas in oil and keep them aside. In the same saucepan, toast the rice and when the grains are hot, wet them with a generous ladle of the reserved cooking water.
- Cook the risotto. Add a ladle of pea cream and continue cooking with the pan covered, stirring occasionally, until about two thirds of the necessary time. Finally, finish by adding little by little all the pea cream and lastly the peas sautéed in the pan.
- Turn off the heat and stir in the cold cream cheese and a little raw extra virgin olive oil to refresh the vegetal scent. Divide the risotto with peas among individual plates and serve immediately.