On the back burner

As with all bread, when you take it out of the oven, let it cool on a baking rack for 15-20 minutes!!!!As with all bread, when you take it out of the oven, let it cool on a baking rack for 15-20 minutes!!!!for tonight.... literally.... is a sauce for a risotto --- adapted from Risotto alla sbiraglia in Elizabeth David's Italian Cooking.

Risotto Alla Sbiraglia
Sauce:
A few pieces of pancetta (yes, our next-but-one-local grocery store now has this!)
Couple of cups minced onion (2-3 smallish onions)
Red bell pepper, diced
Yellow bell pepper, diced
Several stalks of celery, diced
Several cloves of garlic
1 large can diced tomatoes or several fresh tomatoes, diced
Several chicken breasts
Several sliced mushrooms
Olive oil
Salt, pepper, herbs
White wine

Chop up the pancetta and over medium heat, fry in a little oil: this will flavour the base of the sauce. Saute the onions with the pancetta until transparent: add the bell peppers, celery and garlic and saute for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes and bring up to a simmer. Add the herbs. Slice the chicken breasts into long thin slices and add to the sauce, together with the mushrooms. Add wine to cover, and simmer for a long time.

As you see, this is as imprecise as any recipe I've posted --- it almost doesn't matter, for example, which herbs, so long as they taste good to you (I'm partial to basil, oregano, bay, thyme, etc... but your mileage may vary). In addition, the recipe is very robust, so as long as your ratios are not too ridiculous, it will be fine. The cooking time? I allow at least 45 minutes of simmering, but it is better in a really low oven for a longer time: on a weekend I'll often construct at 1 or 2 and simmer it until 5 or later.

For the risotto
Arborio rice (about 1/4 cup per person, or more if hungry!)
1 small onion, sliced thinly
Wine and or chicken or vegetable stock
Sauce from above
Butter

Melt a little butter in a risotto pan. Since you don't own a risotto pan, use a large skillet: it will work just as well:-) Melt the onion in the butter over medium-low heat until transparent. Now stir in the rice to coat in the butter, and stir gently for
a few minutes. Now, half a cup or so at a time, add wine or stock, stirring gently but continuously to allow the rice to absorb the liquid. When a grain is still crunchy in the middle but chewy and soft on the outside, add liquid from the sauce made earlier, still half a cup at a time, and still stirring continuously. When the rice is done (it takes about 20 minutes of adding and stirring) add an ounce or so of butter to it and stir it in. Remove from heat, top with the now less-liquidy sauce, and serve, preferably with crusty bread and butter.

As with all recipes, if you make this, please let me know how it turns out!

Yours, on the back burner,
N.