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Baked Risotto with Chicken, Lemon & Scallions

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Baked Risotto with Chicken Thighs, Lemon & Scallions

When you spend your life working in a restaurant and blogging about what you cook at home, it’s easy to overcomplicate food.  Every dinner has to be the best.  30 minute meals?  Save ’em for Rachael Ray.  1 skillet suppers?  I’m not about to sacrifice flavor for a couple fewer dishes at the end of the night. Chicken and rice for dinner?  Sounds boring, like what I give my dog when he’s sick.

But easy can be delicious and simple flavors can be supremely satisfying.  And if both of those are true, washing just 1 pan after dinner is the icing on the cake.

Thankfully, that’s the case with this recipe.  It’s something I tried it on a whim.  I had a bit of a tummy ache and wanted something soothing.  Plus, I was feeling a tad lazy so I decided to just toss everything in my cast-iron skillet, throw it in the oven, and call it a day.  To my surprise, it was way good.  The rice turned into risotto, without me standing by its side, stirring.  The chicken was moist and tender, with crispy skin.  Score!  Lemons, scallions, and garlic livened things up and a dusting of Parmesan sealed the deal; this was good enough to make again a couple of days later to share with you.

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Risotto alla Margherita

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Risotto alla MargheritaMarch can be rather uninspiring.  Gray, dull, still cold.  Sure, the calendar says it’s spring, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it.  I’d love to be switching to my warm-weather eating regimen, trading in the braised meats and polenta for asparagus and peas, the hearty kale for tender baby arugula, or skip ahead to August for a ripe, red tomato.  But it’s just not going to happen for a while.  And, oh, what I’d give to be sitting in a lawn chair, sipping rosé, feeling the sun on my face.

It’ll happen.  Spring will come, summer will follow.  In the meantime, I’m cheating on this cold “spring” and skipping ahead to summer flavors.  I’m popping a can of San Marzano tomatoes, buying overpriced supermarket basil and a ball of fresh Mozzarella, and I’m going to pack the flavors of a Margherita pizza or a Caprese salad into risotto.  I might even crank up the furnace and eat it while wearing a sundress.

This risotto is a good transition.  Risotto is, by nature, incredibly comforting and warming.  This one is packed with your favorite flavors of summer and bits of softly melted Mozzarella.  No, I didn’t pluck the tomatoes from my own garden and no, I won’t be enjoying this al fresco, but it’ll get me through.

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Scallop & Calamari Salad with Pistachio Gremolata

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I’m home, back to blogging after a really relaxing week at a cabin with friends.  We sat around a roaring fire, played games, read, took walks, and ate.  Oh boy, did we eat.

There was Bo Ssam, Pot-au-Feu, Raclette, lamb shanks, duck legs…

…waffles with bacon, french toast with sausage, nutella-filled crepes.

Also, that little holiday known as Thanksgiving fell smack in the middle.  Pies, turkey with gravy, maple-glazed yams, sage stuffing, potato casserole.

It was a week of delicious eating in a beautiful setting with good company.

There’s only one problem.  Matt’s birthday happened to be on our first day back home and the only way I know to celebrate and show people I care is with food.  Normally, we’d go out or I’d cook an elaborate meal and spring for something manly like a big steak or rack of lamb.

Not an option this year.

So what was I to make, coming off this week of gluttonous eating?

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Chicken & Olive Meatballs in Consommé

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I’ve been accused of only posting decadent diet-busting recipes on my site.  Harsh…I know cream cheese streusel coffee cakes, pork-on-pork roasts, and nutella cream filling aren’t for everyday eating.  They’re treats.  Believe me, I’m eating plenty of really boring healthy meals between those posts.

Here’s a recipe that proves I’m not a total glutton and that simple, healthy foods can be blog-worthy.  It is a chicken consommé with baked chicken-olive meatballs and strands of Swiss chard.  Perfect; I’m calling it consommé so it sounds all French and elegant, it’ll be healthy because there’s a bunch of barely wilted chard in it, satisfying enough for dinner because there will be half a dozen meatballs bobbing around in each bowl.

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Steak Tartare alla Roscioli

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Ready?  Come on let’s go.

Let’s twist and turn our way through old streets of Rome until we find a spot for dinner.

Right, left, straight, through the piazza, right, right, oops we’re down a dead-end alleyway.  Admire the beautiful geraniums spilling off the balcony and continue your mission.  Dinner, looking for dinner.

Hmm…this place looks interesting.  Roscioli.  It’s a beautiful deli in front and a cave like dining room in the rear.  There’s an unkempt, surly looking man running the cash register, gorgeous cured meats in the deli case, and huge bowls of Roman artichokes.  This’ll do.

You’ll order quite a bit here.  How couldn’t you?  You are forced to examine everything in the case while the surly guy deliberates over which table to bring you to.  He double checks to make sure you’re both americani.  Check, check.  He shuffles papers, you gasp over the mortadella with a two foot diameter.  Holy baloney!  Your table is ready.  You can stop eating with your eyes and get down to serious business.

Like I said, it’ll be hard to not eat a lot here.  Everything just looks so fresh, so good, so Italian.  You want it all.  You order several things to share.  You eat, you enjoy.

Four months later, you remember this meal.  You remember how happy you were this night, still in the beginning of your two week-long vacation.  You remember how much more pleasant it was to have feet that ached from walking miles over old cobblestones than from wearing bad shoes on a twelve hour shift.  You’ll remember the cool wine cellar you snooped around in (discreetly) while you waited for the restroom.  You’ll remember all of this.

But four months later, only one dish will haunt you.

The steak tartare.  So simple, so fresh, so Italy.  The meat was from a very special herd of cows, of course.  As if you’d want to eat just any cow!  What else?  Ripe, red as the meat, diced tomato.  Fruity olive oil.  A mound of beautifully creamy, oozy Burrata.

So Italian that maybe I shouldn’t even try to recreate at home in the Midwest.  Maybe I should just cherish the memory.

No.  I’ve got to do it and I’ve got to do it now while I can still find a decent tomato in these parts.  This is crucial.  This dish is only going to have a couple ingredients so they had all better be the best I can find.  Go to the butcher for the meat.  Splurge, you only need a little.  Is there a nice cheese shop nearby?  Head there for the freshest, imported Burrata.  Farmer’s market for the tomato.  Wow, even shopping for this dish makes me feel Italian.

Chop the meat.  Peel and dice the tomato.  Grate a little shallot.  Drizzle the oil.  Sprinkle some salt, a pinch of pepper.  Mix and make it look pretty.  Top with a bit of Burrata and serve with a few crostini.

 

 

Talk.  Reminisce.  Plan your next trip to Italy.


Steak Tartare alla Roscioli
 
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Use only quality beef from a trusted butcher. This recipe will serve 2 as a main or 4 as an appetizer.
Author:
Serves: 2-4
Ingredients
  • 8 oz. Lean cut of Beef (I use tenderloin)
  • 1 medium Ripe Red Tomato
  • 1 small Shallot
  • ¼ Ball of Buratta
  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • Sea Salt or Kosher Salt
  • Coarse Ground Black Pepper
  • Baguette
Instructions
  1. Place beef in freezer for 10-15 minutes. This will make it much easier to cut.
  2. Thinly slice baguette for as many crostini as you feel necessary, drizzle with oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake in 400° oven until golden and crunchy, about 10 minutes.
  3. Peel, seed, and dice tomato. Place in medium bowl.
  4. Dice chilled beef, add to tomatoes.
  5. Grate shallot over tomato and beef mixture. Stir to combine. Season with extra virgin oil, salt, and pepper.
  6. Mound tartare on serving plate, making an indent to hold the Buratta.
  7. Gently cut a wedge of Buratta and place in indentation.
  8. Serve with crostini.