Risi e Bisi

I started out making Risi e Bisi (risotto with peas), then changed my mind at the last minute and substituted broccoli for the peas (since that’s what I had on hand). I also had some chicken leftover and threw that in as well. I’ve never had risotto before, much less cooked it. My usual recipe for rice is throw it in the rice cooker and hit the "on" switch…voila.

This was easy, though. The hardest part was trying to figure out how much salt to add. I was afraid to add too much, since there is chicken broth and parmesan cheese already in it. Anyway, it tasted good. (It needed salt but it’s so much easier to add it than to take it away.) One of my favorite dishes is Campbell Soup’s "Glorified Chicken" which is chicken cooked with cream of mushroom soup, served on rice. The risotto tasted like a glorified version of that. Now I want to try the risotto cacciatore that’s in the December issue of the magazine.

P.S. Half the recipe calls for 1/2 cup of arborio rice. It may not look like it will be enough, but it made plenty. I didn't think it was enough so I put in 3/4 cup. Of course, it soaks up all that liquid and expands, and it would have been fine with the original amount.