Baby, it’s cold outside.

As I write this my 100-year old iron radiator in the kitchen sounds like a rocket ship about to take off and my feet are nestled in down booties where I hope they stay for the next 3 months. It’s coooold! If there was one thing I didn’t miss about the Midwest it was the harsh (cruel, evil, torturous) winters. I love copious amounts of snow but the brutal sub-zero temperatures are just rough after awhile.

Thankfully, a big Dutch oven full of delicious risotto will take that chill off easily. Now, I’ve never been a huge risotto fan. It’s a texture thing more than anything. Foods where I don’t know whether to chew or swallow kind of irritate me (oatmeal being the exception) and I just never really had a fondness for it. However, a coworker has been developing risotto recipes in the TK recently so after eating them so many times lately I really grew to love it. It’s like listening to a song you dislike – hear it enough and it grows on you.

This dish has one of those stick-to-your-ribs qualities about it (without being over-the-top heavy or calorie laden, which let’s face it, is a welcome thing for weight-gain season). I don’t mind standing at the stove stirring risotto for 30 minutes but jeez, if you can just skip it and get delicious, creamy, wonderfully flavored results without that work, why would you bother?

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Baked Parmesan “Risotto”

From Ina Garten’s fabulous “How Easy Is That?”

Makes about 4 dinner-sized servings.

Note: I tagged this ‘vegetarian’ knowing I used chicken stock (as I do with all vegetarian recipes on here) since it’s a simple swap of replacing the chicken stock with veggie stock. Swanson’s doesn’t make veggie stock but Kitchen Basics does and it’s wonderful.

Ingredients

• 1½ cups Arborio rice
• 5 cups hot chicken or vegetable stock, divided
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• ½ cup dry white wine (such as Chardonnay)
• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1½ tsp. kosher salt
• 1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup frozen peas
• ½ cup chopped fresh parsley

Directions

1.) Preheat oven to 350° F with rack set in center of oven. Combine the rice and 4 cups chicken stock in a large Dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid. Cover and bake 45 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender, but slightly firm.

2.) Carefully remove the Dutch oven from the oven and stir in the remaining cup of chicken stock, Parmesan cheese, wine, butter, salt, and pepper. Stir vigorously for a few minutes until rice is thick and flows like lava. Stir in peas and chopped parsley at the very end. Taste for seasoning and serve immediately.

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