It’s not exactly conventional to make an Italian risotto recipe with feta cheese, but with the addition of lemon, mint and peas it’s genuinely amazing and well worth the experimentation. It’s still got that creamy risotto texture that makes them so hearty, but with the counterpoint flavours of the salty feta cheese, zingy lemon juice and cool mint you get an pretty punchy explosion of tastes in every mouthful. As with all recipes, it’s all about stirring vigorously, so limber up, dice up your feta and get ready for twenty to twenty-five minutes of elbow action.
Feta cheese risotto ingredients (serves 2):
• Feta cheese (150g) cut into cubes
• Peas (100 g)
• 14 button mushrooms chopped in half
• 3 shallots or a medium sized onion chopped finely
• A handful of mint chopped roughly
• 1 glass white wine
• 500 ml vegetable stock
• The juice of half a lemon
• Risotto rice (1/2 mug per person)
• 1 tbls olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
Feta cheese risotto recipe instructions:
1. Fry the shallots/onion lightly for a couple of minutes in the olive oil before adding the risotto rice and stirring to coat it all in the oil and crack the outer layer a little.
2. Throw in the mushrooms and give them a minute or so to reduce down slightly.
3. Pour in a splash of the stock and start stirring like mad. The harder you hit it the better it tastes. Repeat this for at least twenty minutes, adding more stock when the risotto rice has absorbed the majority of the previous portion of stock.
4. Continue the process with the white wine and add salt and pepper.
5. Before all of the wine has been used up, add the peas and go back to the splash and stir process.
6. When the consistency starts to get creamy and the rice is just shy of being cooked add the mint and feta cheese.
7. Stir through with the lemon juice until the peas have been cooked and serve it up fast, adding more salt and pepper to taste.
It’s not necessarily a Classico Italiano, with no Parmesan to be seen, but feta cheese risotto definitely makes a tasty combination. Try it with a nice glass of crisp Pino Grigio to balance the impact of the flavours.
