Risotto

According to Mister Anchovy:

Chop up:
Shallots
A few cloves of garlic
An onion
A green or red pepper
Some cremini mushrooms

Soak:
Some dried chantrelles in a cup of water for a half hour. Chop them up, and add the liquid to the stock.

Grate:
Some fontina and some obsenely good parmagiano cheeses....a big handful of each, grated roughly!

Open:
A bottle of white wine that has been sitting around the house because you prefer drinking red.
A bottle of nice shiraz you can drink while cooking the rizotto. This recipe cannot be prepared without drinking wine while cooking.

Heat up:
Some really good soup stock....best is homemade veggie stock, but use what you have.

Chop up:
A couple ripe tomatoes and a few sundried tomatoes. Also chop some fresh basil and thyme, a handful of each.

Saute (on medium heat):
In amazingly good olive oil (we use Salah's gold), the shallots, garlic, onion and pepper, for a few minutes. Add some kosher salt to taste.
Add the mushrooms. Note, the mushrooms should be in larger rather than smaller chunks.

Add:
About 4 cups of arborio or other suitable short grained Italian style rice. You want to make enough for guests + leftovers tomorrow. Add in a ladle full of stock and pour in a few splashes of white wine. Add the herbs. As the rizotto sucks up the liquid, freely add white wine and stock. Add the chantrelles. Add the sun-dried tomatoes. Pour yourself another glass of red, and enjoy a few sips. Keep stirring. Always use a wooden spoon. We do our rizotto in a great big heavy bottom skillet, by the way, and that works out perfectly. Somewhere along the way, remember that you have chopped up some tomatoes and toss them in. Keep adding stock and wine as the rizotto cooks, until the rice is getting tender but still has some body and character about it.

Add:
The cheese. Stir it in. Then add a splash of heavy cream, and stir it around again. Add fresh ground pepper.

Your whole house will smell divine at this point. Shut off the heat and pour yourself another glass of that good red plonk.

Serve in bowls with crusty french bread and a nice fresh green salad on the side.

Feel the love.