I love this risotto and usually get the urge for it when I’ve had a weekend-of-shame and know I have eaten too much rubbish. It’s very much a Spring dish and it fills the culinary gap between winter bakes and Summer salads. It’s also great for a fridge raid, so I always just throw in whatever I’ve got that’s green in the veg box.

Making risotto requires little more than a bit of attention,so here goes:

Finely chop garlic and an onion and soften slowly in a frying pan.

Add a cup of risotto rice (there are various options but I used arborio) and stir in gently with the softened onions for a few minutes. Then add a good slug of dry white wine if you like.

You’ll need about 600ml of good quality vegetable or chicken stock and this is added to the rice approx. 100ml at a time and stirred until absorbed. I’m fairly attentive with my risotto and give it a good stir every couple of minutes. This process will take around 15/20 mins.

While the rice still has a bit of bite, add the vegetables that require some cooking such as green beans and asparagus. If you’ve used all the stock, keep it moist (a bit like porridge) with a bit of boiling water.

When the bite of the rice is barely there, add the last vegetables (maybe peas, spinach, rocket) and a handful of toasted pine kernels and a tbsp of fresh pesto.

At this point I turn off the heat and pop the lid onto the pan and leave the risotto to sit for a final few minutes before adding a handful of parmesan. I’m a sucker for a drizzle of truffle oil just before serving, to add an extra earthy flavour to the delicious fresh green taste of the finished risotto.