Eat for Less: Oven Baked Risotto

Where do you stand on ‘one-pot’ dishes?

I used to sniff at one-pot dishes. I used to be like Sally in ‘When Harry Met Sally’ – liked things ‘on the side’.

Now, simplifying cooking and minimising preparation time (without loss of quality) is a matter of survival. How otherwise can I work 10-12 hours a day and eat home cooked meals without having a cook?

When it comes to how to eat for less, one-pot dishes win the game.

We like risotto. Have you cooked risotto in the ‘old fashioned’ way recently?

It takes only about 40 minutes (including preparation time) but you have to be there all the time – all this stirring, adding liquid gradually and catching it at the time when it is slightly al-dente.

Too much hard work at the stove for me.

Enter ‘one-pot’ dish.

The risotto recipe I’ll share with you today is:

• Easy;
• Preparation is approximately 7 minutes and that’s it;
• Delicious; and

Go beat this one, I challenge you!

This is what you need to cook great oven baked risotto:

You need a flat casserole dish or a pot that can go in the oven. Like this one, for example:

Apart from that, you need:

• 250g smoked bacon (rashers or cubes)
• 1 onion
• 25g butter
• ½ cup white wine
• 300g risotto rice (it works with long grain rice as well)
• 150g pack cherry tomatoes
• 700ml chicken stock
• Parmesan

Preparation

Chop the bacon is small pieces.

Chop the onion.

Cut the cherry tomatoes in halves.

Pre-heat oven to 200C/fan oven 180C.

Fry the bacon pieces in the dish until golden and crisp. Add the onion and butter and cook for 3-4 minutes longer (or until the onion is soft).

Put in the rice and stir until well coated in the oil. Pour in the wine and boil for couple of minutes.

Add the tomatoes and the stock; stir the mixture.

Cover and bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes.

(Sometimes it can take longer; just see whether the rice is cooked in 20 minutes. If not, leave it in for a bit longer.)

Serve with salad and sprinkled, grated Parmesan on top.

This is certainly a worth trying, eat for less recipe. Serves 5-6 and costs between £2.50 and £3.50 to prepare (depending on where you buy your risotto rice mainly).

Are you going to try it? I’m making it tonight for dinner.