Spring has sprung!

Living in a place that generally lacks seasons, I feel a little spoiled sometimes.  When much of the country is digging out from under the latest snowstorm, we often have some of the nicest days of the year - mid-60's and sunny.  Sometimes there is wind or, like this morning, fog, but it often serves to make the view that much more spectacular on an early run:

The most exciting attribute of season-less-ness, for the realm of this blog however, is that our CSA doesn't stop or even diminish in quality during the winter.  The veggies we get are generally more "wintery" - a lot of root vegetables, hardy greens and fennel, but this week, I knew it must be spring, because we got, among other things, asparagus and green garlic. I had never actually cooked with green garlic before, but as soon as I saw those two items, along with lemons on the list for yesterday's delivery, I knew my mission was clear.  Spring risotto!

I have had a love affair with risotto since I first learned to make it, probably about 5 years ago.  It's comforting, and methodical, and once you get the process down, you can swap out ingredients to suit your needs.  I used to make a barley "risotto" with red beans, and I've made mushroom risotto and risotto with pesto, but today's version was by far my favorite, because of the fresh, springlike feel.

First you prep your ingredients:

Very important, because once you start cooking the risotto, you can't venture far from the pan, because you need to stir almost constantly.

Saute your onion/garlic in some oil for a bit (for me, this time it was actually fennel and green garlic, but I often use leeks or plain ol' white or yellow onion) then add your rice (short grain arborio rice is traditionally used.  I mixed in some farro, and in the past have used barley as well). Then you add your other veggies (if they need a while to cook, like my big fat asparagus, and my peas) and a bit of wine and start stirring.

You will also want to have 4 cups of warmed stock in a pot over low heat, so that you can add the stock, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring between each addition.  When you have about a cup of stock left, you can add your herbs and/or veggies like spinach which don't need very long to cook (I added thyme, fennel leaves and lemon zest).  Once all the stock was added I stirred in some toasted pine nuts and took out my dinner and leftover portions before adding parmesan to the rest, for Kevin.

This was the first time I made risotto without cheese (for me at least) and I loved the bright, clean, springy flavors!