Borrowing Barefoot: Garden Tour and Summertime Risotto
Ina has Paris. As it turns out, Anna has Italy! Oh, Italy, how you’ve stolen my heart! This is a place that makes eating TRUE farm to table easy and turns people who don’t like hiking in to nature lovers. If you follow TeachEatRepeat on Instagram, you may have seen some of my recent posts from Italy. My husband and I took 6 days to explore the Amalfi Coast before a good friend of mine from High School was married in Ravello. I’ll share all the details of our trip in another post, but this post is about something really special: I was lucky enough to spend an afternoon exploring the garden and kitchen at one of our hotels with the chef. Not only did traveling to a fabulous European country make me feel like Ina, but what is more Barefoot Contessa than a garden tour? This recipe is easy enough to make at home, and indulgent enough to feel and taste truly Italian.
While on (in?) Capri (I don’t know which is correct when on an island that is named for a town), the hotel we stayed at had the most beautiful cliff-side organic garden. Every single vegetable, herb and fruit we ate during our three day stay came from this garden. And as you can imagine, we ate a lot.
On their website, the hotel advertised a cooking class with the chef, and I immediately called them to sign up. You may or may not know this about me…I like to cook, just a little, okay?
Surprisingly, no one else at the hotel signed up, so first, Michael and I had a private tour of the garden with Chef Vincenzo. He toured us around the zucchinis, the pumpkins, the long beans, the eggplants, the bell peppers and the plums and then through the herbs. Because the garden is 100% organic, we were able to pick things and eat them right away. Forget farm to table, this was straight-up farm to mouth. The most amazing part of the garden was the view. It sat embedded in to the cliffs of the hotel, which gave it an infinity pool type appearance. It just seemed to spill over the edge and in to the crystal blue waters of the Mediterranean.
After the tour, Chef brought us, and our haul, in to the kitchen. He told us we were going to make Eggplant Parmesan and Zucchini Risotto. These are both things that I have made some version of before, so it’s not that the recipe was new, but I was really psyched to learn from a true Italiano master. To make the risotto, we started by peeling the skin from the zucchini. The skin is obviously where the color comes from, so chef wanted to preserve the color by treating the skin separately. After we peeled the zucchini, we cut them in to rice-sized pieces. Then, we added the zucchini skin to a sauté pan with olive oil and vegetable broth. We blanched them for only 2-3 minutes, until they turned BRIGHT green, then put them in a bowl of ice-water to stop the cooking. Last, the skins went in to a blender with a little more chicken broth. This created an almost chartreuse green sauce that we saved for later.
Next, we got the rice cooking. Another fun fact I learned…practically every recipe for risotto I have ever read calls for Arborio rice. Chef uses Carnaroli rice, and then looked at me like I was out of my MIND when I asked about Arborio rice. Apparently Arborio rice is NOT good for risotto. Aren’t you glad I asked? Butter and olive oil went in to the pan with the rice. This was interesting to me—Chef said to wait until the rice was really hot to add any broth. That was a fun fact I didn’t know. He set a timer for 12 minutes, and we added about one ladle-full of broth every two minutes or so. After 6 minutes, we added the zucchini insides (sans skins) that we had diced before, and cooked for the remaining 6 minutes. When there was about 1 minute left, we added most, but not all, of the zucchini skin sauce we made. This turned the risotto in to something fresh and vibrant looking.
At the end, Chef topped our bowls with a spoonful of kefir, which I was a super fan of, for the extra probiotics. Hope you love this Italian Summertime Risotto!
What You’ll Need:
2 TBSP Olive Oil
4 TBSP Butter or Ghee
3 small zucchini, peeled. Reserve the skins. Dice the zucchini to rice-sized pieces
5 cups vegetable broth
Juice and zest of one lemon
1 and ½ cups Carnaroli rice
Salt and pepper
4 TBSP kefir, for garnish
What I Did:
First, peel and dice your zucchini. Blanch the zucchini skins in vegetable broth for about 3 minutes, then remove to ice water. Add lemon juice, zest, salt, zucchini skins and ½ cup broth to a blender. Mix until sauce is totally liquid. Reserve the sauce for later.
Heat about 2 tablespoons of butter in a sauce pan. Add your rice and stir the rice over medium heat until the rice is really hot. Chef physically reached in to the pot and touched the rice. You probably should too.
Add the broth, one cup at a time, until the rice has absorbed 3 cups of liquid. You should stir the risotto pretty much constantly while it is cooking. This is what will give it a creamy texture with no dairy.
Set a timer for 12 minutes, and at the 6 minute mark, add your diced zucchini. Cook for remaining time continuing to add broth until the rice is fully cooked, but still al dente.
Gently fold in your zucchini sauce and add remaining butter or ghee.
Top with kefir. Go forth and mangia!
