Non-Intimidating Risotto

I love risotto. It's absolutely bulletproof (and by bulletproof I mean foolproof). I like it because it's easy and other than a little babysitting it's pretty easy once it gets going.

Here's how you make risotto:

1 onion
2 cloves garlic
Any vegetable you like (frozen peas, asparagus cut into bite-sized chunks, jarred roasted red peppers, canned artichoke hearts...)
Rice (1 1/2 cups or more)
1/2 cup-1 cup dry white wine
5-6 cups stock (vegetable is our go-to now that we're pseudo-vegetarian, but chicken works too)
Salt, pepper
Parmesan cheese (lots)
Small pat of butter

1. Chop an onion
2. Sauté in a pan on medium heat with either olive oil or butter until glossy.
3. Add some chopped garlic, sauté for another moment or so.
4. Add any vegetables you want, sauté a few minutes more to get it all cooked up.
5. Add dry rice (1 1/2 cups in most recipes, but John and I eyeball it depending on how hungry we are/how many leftovers we want), stir until glossy and coated in oil.
6. Add 1/2 cup-1 cup of dry white wine; cook until almost entirely absorbed.
7. Add about 1/2 cup-1 cup of vegetable stock at a time (eyeball it; for god's sake don't get out the measuring cup); cook until almost entirely absorbed, stirring every now and then to get all the rice cooking in the liquid.
8. Repeat step 7 until you've used all the stock.
9. Salt and pepper to taste (depending on whether you have low-sodium stock or not)
10. Throw in a pat of butter right at the end; stir.
11. Take off the heat; add a bunch of parmesan cheese and stir in so it's melted in and wonderful.

Seems like a lot of steps, but it's really easy and once you make it once it's like riding a bike. You can throw in any vegetable you like and it works (though I generally don't do as much with the leafy greens in this one, because they disintegrate so much during the long simmering process. But that can be good too!).

The next day, to make it seem like you're making a different dinner, you can roll it into spheres and coat those suckers in breadcrumbs and fry them up on a pan. Delicious and resourceful!

(I am indebted to the Cooking for Two cookbook that has an awesome artichoke heart risotto, and the Cozy Kitchen Blog, which gave me the idea to make leftover risotto cakes).