Risotto Milanese.

Saffron risotto with cherry tomatoes.

Finely chop 100 g onion and fry for at least 8 minutes, gently in 5 cl olive oil. Add 1 clove of finely chopped and/or crushed garlicand leave to stew for another 1 minute. Add 200 g of risotto rice and leave to fry in the oil for 5 minutes. Moisten with 200 g white wine and let it boil until it almost starts to bake again. Now moisten with 400 g of the marinated cherry tomatoes (you will have to add water to get 400 g). Let boil gently without the lid. Stir the rice almost continuously. After about 15 minutes, check the doneness of the rice, the moisture will be as good as absorbed. If not done and no more moisture, add a little water. If cooked and still too moist, raise the fire and stir quickly. Remove the risotto from the fire and stir in 50 g of shaved parmesan. Maybe leave it under a lid for a while. Unless the risotto is overcooked.

For risotto always use real risotto rice. Arborio and sometimes Carnaroli are usually available in the supermarket. You probably won’t have enough leaking liquid (from the tomatoes) left over, fill up with water up to 400 g.

Saffron tomatoes.

Cut 800 g red cherry tomatoes with a sharp knife. Blanch the tomatoes for 10 seconds in boiling water and then cool them immediately in (ice) cold water. They can then be peeled very easily. Add 1 jar of saffron or a few saffron threads, 15 g sugar and 5 g salt and stir gently. Leave to marinate for at least 1 hour and scoop regularly. Sieve the cherry tomatoes but save the released liquid. Mix 3 cl olive oil with the cherry tomatoes. Keep in the fridge but eat at room temperature.

You can also use different colours of cherry tomatoes interchangeably. Here we use the liquid released in the risotto Milanese but you can also reduce the liquid to syrup thickness and mix it with the oil under the cherry tomatoes.

Finishing.

Grill or bake 400 g Berloumi. Spoon the risotto into a deep plate. Serve the cherry tomatoes at room temperature. Lay the Berloumi on the risotto and work luscious with green herbs.