Risotto ai Frutti di Mare

A Happy 4^th of July to all. I hope that you, your families and friends are all having a wonderful weekend.

Wow! it’s been three weeks since my last post! I have no idea where time has gone. I have of course noticed that our cold rainy spring has turned into a hot summer overnight. Today, I’ll share the recipe I was hoping to share before my computer wows, Risotto ai frutti di mare – one of my favorite ways to make risotto. My laptop wows are not quite over but I managed to identify the problem and know how to bypass it now (still trying to understand the cause though). I hope to get back to visiting all your lovely blogs and sharing ideas very soon. In northern California the temperature hit the 90s today! I know everyone is busy preparing for the 4^th so I’ll go straight to today’s recipe, risotto ai frutti di mare.

Risotto ai frutti di mare

Seafood Risotto: The Ingredients

½ lb scallops

½ lb calamari

½ lb medium sized deveined uncooked shrimp

½ lb mussels

Fish stock (I use Bar Harbor all natural fish stock)

300 grams Riso vialone nano

1 glass dry white wine

½ can of tomatoes (puree in a blender)

Two garlic cloves (crushed).

Bunch of basil

4 tablespoons of olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Seafood risotto: The Cooking Method

Here's the way I prepare this dish:

1. Wash and clean the mussels and then place in a pot of boiling water with a bay leaf until the shells open. Remove from the fire and drain. Remove the mussels from the shells and set aside.
2. Prepare and wash all the ingredients. Wash the rice well and rinse all of the fish you will add then clean the calamari and cut into strips.
3. Pour the olive oil into the pan and sauté the crushed garlic and chopped basil.
4. Add all of the seafood and sauté for about 5 minutes. Then add the glass of wine.

5. When the liquid has evaporated to half its volume, remove the fish from the pan and set aside.
6. Add the rice and the pureed tomatoes. Keep stirring and add the fish stock as needed. It takes about 20 minutes for the rice to cook.

7. Add all the cooked seafood in the last 3 minutes or so. As soon as the liquid has evaporated, remove from the fire.
8. Add some chopped basil to garnish. Serve and eat immediately.

Enjoy!

I'd like to give a shoutout to Heather from Pass the Cayenne Pepper Please  who put a big smile on my face a few weeks ago when she sent me an email to say I had won some wonderful Chiobani yogurt - I'm looking forward to receiving the coupons to try it out.

From my Backyard

The backyard is alive and well this time of year and, of course, so is the wildlife. So a couple of weekends ago, I was quite pleased to pick some wonderful cherries from our newest tree.

But we did not get to pick a single cherry from our large tree. They weren't quite ready for picking that same weekend. When I went to pick them last Saturday, all the local birds had had a feast. there was literally only a handful left! Our wild cherries however are mostly still there and  I did make a few cherry pies last weekend.