Italian Baked Rice

 

My planned meal went out of the window last night as my tesco shop wasn't arriving until after 9 and I always get hungry much earlier on. My enthusiasm for cooking in the early evening had somewhat dwindled and I was cursing for not having a pizza or a ready meal in the freezer, something I rarely have anyway. So I had looked at this recipe in Jamie Olivers Five ingredients cook book through the week and I had the ingredients to make it. No word of a lie in under 5 minutes the dish was in the oven, and that's exactly what I needed last night. I loved this variation on a risotto, it was just so easy. I did use stock instead of water as I thought it may be a bit bland otherwise and I didn't have mascarpone so I used some low fat creme fraiche. I think it would work well with any cooked meats, salami or parma ham perhaps.  I have just devoured another portion for lunch from the leftovers and it was just as nice today. 

Ingredients
Serves 4
2 onions
60 grams salami
300 grams arborio risotto rice
1 heaped tablespoon mascarpone cheese
40 grams parmesan cheese finely grated

Method
Preheat your oven to 180C, 
Peel and quarter the onions, then separate the layers by breaking them apart to form petals.
Heat a large non-stick frying pan over a high heat and add the onion petals to the pan
Char for 4 minutes, tossing regularly.
Reduce the heat to medium and add the olive oil, salami and rice and cook for 1 minute
Add the 1.2 lites of boiling kettle water to the frying pan, the mascarpone cheese and the grated Parmesan cheese
Season and continue to cook for 2 minutes.
If you are using a pan that can go in the oven transfer straight to the oven and bake for 40 minutes, otherwise transfer to a casserole dish. The rice should have absorbed all the cooking liquid. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and dish up .