This week our sweet and dear friend Alessandra, who is also an excellent and refined cooker, shows us how to prepare the Tomato risotto.
- Do you want to introduce yourself, telling us where you are originally from?
Hi there, my name is Alessandra, I am Italian, although… my mother was half Swedish and half Hungarian and I was born in Cile and grown up in several different countries.
- Talking about food, what’s your favorite Italian recipe which you prepare often and easily?
I am not a pasta person, I like it but … well, I prefer rice, in all its variants, Italian or not. But I have 4 boys at home, and if I am depriving them of pasta it has to be risotto!
I have never been a lover of Risotto with Tomato sauce, which is an aberration compared to Pasta and have never done it at home. I have always prepared risotto with mushrooms, or saffron or zucchini or … any variant you might think of, so imagine my surprise when while living in Jerusalem at the beautiful Colony Hotel – whose restaurant is the best in the city – my husband chooses to order “risotto al pomodoro”!!!!
Of all great choices in the menu, risotto al pomodoro????
I was speechless….
But then the dish arrived, I must say it looked nice with the basil leaves on the top and that final finishing of just a bit of olive oil… still I was not convinced.
Then Lio (my husband) took the first bit and his eyes light up… it was delicious!
I tasted it reluctantly and was astonished, it was really good!!! We debated all dinner how to reproduce it and a few days later I made it and discovered that it was really easy.
Since then I make it very often and my older sons are also doing it for their friends at the university abroad, it has been quite a success!
It is super easy to prepare, 20 mins tops and its ready, but it requires you full attention. For those 20 mins you have one job and one job only: stir the rice!
