Pear and Cashew Risotto

Guess what I have?

Eric's Pear and Cashew Risotto Recipe! Try not to drool on your screen.

Ingredients

2 pears

¾ cup of white wine + ½ cup of same wine

½ cup sugar

1 ½ cups Arborio rice

1 ½ boxes chicken stock

1 tsp garlic

½ cup cashews

parmigiano reggiano

salt/pepper

olive oil

Directions

Peel and cube 2 pears into about ½ inch cubes.

In a sauce pan add ¾ cup water mixed with ¾ cup red or white wine of your choice (I use a pinot grigio) And ½ cup sugar cook over high heat until sugar dissolves into liquid.

Turn heat to medium and add pear cubes to syrup mix.

Keep pears at a light boil for 45 minutes while cooking the Arborio rice

Place 1 ½ boxes of chicken stock in a pan and heat over low to medium low heat.

Coat bottom of large skillet or sauce pan with olive oil

Add 1 teaspoon of garlic and cook until golden

Add rice on top of garlic and toast until you smell a nutty smell (should not be really brown but maybe a light gold brown color).

Pour ½ cup of wine into the pan and stir into rice and garlic mixture.

When the wine is absorbed and the rice starts to moisten add 1-2 ladles full of the warm stock and continue stirring. Keep stirring until rice becomes thick enough that it slowly runs back together when you stir and then add another ladle to a ladle and a half.  Keep doing this until all the stock is gone and the rice is plum and has a soft texture with a little bite. With the last two installments of stock add cashews that have been toasted in a dry pan for 2-3 minutes over medium high heat to rice mix.

The risotto should be thicker than a soup but still runny.  Add parmigiano reggiano cheese to taste and stir in until it is melted.

Finally pull pear cubes out of cooking liquid with a slotted spoon and stir into rice and cashew mixture.

Season with salt and pepper as necessary (I edited where Eric wrote "to taste"- for some reason I find the words "to taste" annoying haha).

Happy now kids?

By the way, I never put cheese in mine and I think it's fabulous without it, and healthier. Just me though.