Asparagus and lemon risotto

Description

You could use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock. The flavour will be much the same, but your risotto will lack the soul, not to mention the silky texture, that can only be achieved with a fine, gelatinous chicken stock.

Ingredients

50g/1¾oz butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
200g/7oz arborio rice
125ml/4½fl oz white wine or white vermouth
1 litre/1¾ pints hot chicken stock
400g/14oz asparagus, chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 lemons, zest and juice
3 tbsp grated parmesan

Method

Melt the butter in a wide, high-sided pan over a very low heat. Peel the onion and chop it finely. If your onion is larger than a golf ball, you will only need half of it. Let it soften in the butter, stirring from time to time so that it does not colour but instead becomes translucent and silky.
Stir in the rice, folding the grains over briefly in the butter with a wooden spoon. Pour in the wine or vermouth and let it bubble down until the liquid has pretty much disappeared, chopping the asparagus into short lengths as it does so.
Add a hefty ladleful of hot stock, turn the heat up a bit, then let the liquid almost disappear before adding the pieces of asparagus and a second ladle of stock. Continue adding the stock as it boils down to almost nothing. Stir the rice often, grating and squeezing the lemons as you go.
Season with salt, pepper, the lemon zest and juice and continue cooking till the rice is creamy but has a little bite left in it. Stir in the cheese and eat immediately.