Roasted Tomato Baked Risotto

I doubt I'm alone when I say that very few of my recipes are true originals.  When we start to cook a meal, no matter what it is, we are often influenced by the food we have tasted and prepared over the course of our lives.  Recipes are like blueprints or floor plans to me, they need to be followed for the structure of the dish to work, but as I become more familiar with them, I can add my own flourishes and make the recipe my own.  As I look through my cookbooks and accumulated recipes, I will often borrow from one recipe to add to another, either adjusting it to be more to my taste, or to streamline it and make it easier to prepare. This dish is a perfect example of my scheming and tweaking working out perfectly.

The baked risotto is from one of my stacks of Cook's Country magazines.  It is perfection, it gives you the creamy risotto you want without the standing and stirring part.  I've combined it with Garlic Shrimp with Roasted Tomato and Basil Risotto, which is one of our house favorites. It was a meal that brought silence to the table as we ate, we were far too busy enjoying it to speak.  I have to say that I'm very pleased with this combination, and have been making it this way ever since I gave it a shot.  

This week, I left the shrimp out.  I am in the process of trying to clean out the stockpile that I have in my freezer, and there was a pork roast in there that was calling my name. **If you want to go the shrimp route, let me encourage you to poach the shrimp in the chicken stock that you will be adding to the rice.  It adds wonderful seafood flavor to the rice, so don't miss out on the opportunity.  Simply follow the directions for warming the stock, once it is simmering, but before you add the roasted tomatoes. drop in the uncooked shrimp and simmer gently until the shrimp are cooked through, but just barely, maybe 3-5 minutes.  Remove them from the stock, and set them aside in the fridge, until your risotto comes out of the oven. Once you've removed the shrimp from the chicken broth, proceed with the recipe.

Roasted Tomato & Garlic
adapted from jaymielo's Tasty Kitchen Garlic Shrimp with Roasted Tomato & Basil

• 6-8 Roma Tomatoes
• 1 pint of Cherry or Grape tomatoes 
• 2 heads of Garlic
• 2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
• 1 tsp. Kosher Salt
• 1 Tbsp. Italian Seasonings**
• Freshly ground black pepper

**If you are lucky enough to have some fresh basil or oregano around, please do substitute for the dried herbs, you will probably need about 1/2 cup of each, chopped.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Cut the tops off the Roma tomatoes and the garlic bulbs.  Place tomatoes cut side down in a 9x13 baking pan or dish, add the garlic bulbs, whole, and throw in the cherry tomatoes.  Sprinkle the herbs, salt, and pepper over the top of the dish, and then drizzle the olive oil over.  Bake for 1 hour, enjoy how wonderful your house smells.

Remove the tomatoes from the oven and let the contents of the pan cool, we'll come back to them in a little bit.



Baked Risotto
adapted from Cook's Country Creamy Baked Risotto

• 5 Cups Low-Sodium Chicken Broth
• 1/2 Cup Water
• 2 Bay leaves
• 4 Tbsp Butter, unsalted 
• 1 onion, minced
• 2 Cups Arborio Rice
• 1/2 Cup White wine, dry vermouth, or extra chicken broth (beer?)
• 1 1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese

Dutch Oven
Aluminum Foil

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Also, make sure that you adjust your oven racks now so that you can fit the dutch oven, with it's lid into the oven.  I constantly forget to do this, only to realize it when I am trying to put a giant vat of boiling liquid into the oven and it will not fit.  

In a pot big enough to hold 7 or 8 cups of liquid, combine the broth, water, & bay leaves.  Bring up to a simmer.

Grab your roasted tomatoes and garlic.  Remove the skin from the Roma tomatoes, it should lift right off for the most part.  Squeeze the garlic cloves out of their skins and back into the dish with the tomatoes.  Now smash, squish, or crush the contents of the pan using your hands or a potato masher, whatever you would like.  I usually just go the hands route.





Add the crushed tomato mixture in with the chicken broth, and bring to a simmer, lower your heat and keep it at a low simmer.

While you are warming up the broth, melt the butter in a large dutch oven.  Once melted, add your onion, and cook for about 5-6 minutes until it is just starting to brown. Stir in the rice and continue cooking for 3 minutes or so.  You just want it to start to turn from the bright white of uncooked rice, to a little bit more of a translucent white.  Add the wine to the rice, and cook, stirring constantly, until the rice has absorbed most of the wine.

Pour the chicken broth mixture into the dutch oven.  Give everything a good stir.  Take a piece of aluminum foil and VERY CAREFULLY place it on top of the contents in the dutch oven, almost like a steamer basket.  You want it pressed against the broth, and going up the sides of the dutch oven.  Place the dutch oven lid on, securing the aluminum foil inside, and heave the thing into the oven.

Bake for 15 minutes.  Carefully remove from the oven, remove the foil, and stir in the Parmesan cheese. Remove and discard the bay leaves as you find them.  Check for seasoning, depending on how salty your broth was, you may need to add some more salt.**If you are adding the cooked shrimp, now is the time to do it,  Serve and Enjoy!