My Morning Chocolate

Sometimes I stumble onto a dish that is so amazingly good that I wake up thinking about it the next day.  This risotto is one of those dishes, and the only reason I found the recipe is because I wanted to cook with squash blossoms.

I was at my uncle’s farm a few days ago, walking to my car with a green basket full of eggplant, squash, tomatoes, and corn.  Then, just before I left the field, I noticed the orange and green blossoms on the zucchini plants.

When I was a teenager working on the farm, I hated these blossoms.   After cleaning the zucchini in a big blue tub filled with water, the leftover blossoms always seemed to get these brown, slimy edges.  When I would reach in the water for more zucchini, they would cling to my hand like seaweed.

But now that I know the blossoms are edible, I decided to pick a few just for fun.  “How do I eat these?” I asked as I plucked a blossom from the vine.

“You’re the one that wants to eat the blossoms,” my uncle said.  “I eat the squash.”

Humph.  Well, I knew I could cook something with them.  So I gently laid the blossoms in the green basket.

But I had to work quickly.  When Kenny and I arrived home, I realized the strain of the half-hour car ride was too much for the blossoms.  They were already beginning to wilt.

So I started researching right away and came across this risotto recipe.  It was just what I was looking for.  I had most of the ingredients already - I love when that happens! – and the squash bossoms didn’t need to be perfect because I would be cutting them into slivers.

It took me a few hours to finish the risotto, but it was delicious.  And not because of the squash blossoms – I couldn’t taste them at all.  (The New York Times Diner’s Journal says that it is easy to overwhelm the delicate flavor of a squash blossom.)  It was the flavor of the yellow tomatoes that made this risotto so good.

But I’m very grateful that my handful of wilting squash blossoms led me to this recipe.  

To Clean Squash Blossoms

Remove the spiny, green outer leaves (like the upper right picture).  Then, reach inside the blossom and remove the stamen (like the bottom picture).

Because my blossoms were wilted, I also dunked them in cold water for a few minutes.  They perked right up.

Summer Squash and Squash Blossom Risotto
Adapted from Local Flavors by Deborah Madison

(Although “yellow tomato” didn’t make it into the recipe name, I added it to the title of this post.  It’s the tomato flavor that makes this risotto so good!)    

THE TOMATOES
1 pound or more of ripe yellow tomatoes
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
A couple of springs of thyme, leaves removed
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 tablespoon olive oil
Kosher salt

THE RICE
1 pound bright yellow squash
5 to 6 cups vegetable stock (see recipe below)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small pat of butter
½ medium onion, finely diced
1 ½ cups rice (Though Arborio rice is usually found in risotto, I used a combination of brown and jasmine rice)
½ cup white wine
½ cup freshly grated Romano cheese
A handful of squash blossoms, cut into slivers (the recipe calls for 20 to 30; I only had 14)
Chopped basil and/or parsley

Cut the tomato walls (sides) into small neat pieces and finely mince the cores.  Put them in a bowl with the garlic, herbs, oil, and a few pinches of salt and set aside.

Cut the yellow squash into a small dice, about twice as large as the grains of rice.  Note:  Here is what 1 pound, 2 ounces of squash looks like:

And here are the squash blossoms and yellow squash, slivered and cut and ready to go:

Have the stock simmering on the stove.

Heat the oil in a wide pot.  Add the onion and squash and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the squash beings to color.  (I don’t have a wide pot, so I made my risotto in a wok.  The squash didn’t brown because of the wok’s small surface area, but otherwise the wok worked well.)  

Add rice and a small pat of butter and stir to coat the rice in the butter.  Pour in the wine and simmer until it’s absorbed, then add ½ cup stock and simmer until it’s absorbed.  Keep adding stock in ½-cup increments until the rice is cooked, using 5 to 6 cups in all. 

This is what the risotto looks like when it’s ready:

Turn off the heat and stir in the tomatoes and cheese.  Stir in the squash blossoms, taste for salt, and season with pepper.  (I’m usually generous with salt, but I didn’t think the risotto needed much.)

Top with chopped basil, parsley, and, if you like, a bit of grated cheese.

Vegetable Stock
I’ve linked to a recipe for Vegetable Stock before, but I just realized that link can no longer be found.  So here is a new version:

1 onion
2 carrots
2 celery ribs, including leaves
2 cloves of garlic
8 springs of parsley
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 quarts of water (8 cups)

Heat oil in a large pan or wok.

Cut the onion, carrots, and celery into big chunks.  Then add them, along with the garlic and parsley, to the pan to brown.  (If you want a lighter stock, skip this browning step, and don’t use any oil.)

Then add two quarts/eight cups of water to the pan.  Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 25 to 40 minutes.  Strain out the vegetables.