Cooking for one made easy with Nigellissima

Triumph
Super easy, super quick and tasty cheat's risotto takes the pain out of cooking for one

Cooking for one made easy with Nigellissima

Welcome to 2013! It's winter again in Switzerland - my favourite time of year, food-wise. But I have had a burst of summer - I spent the last couple of weeks in warmer climes, spending a week in Hong Kong, before heading home to Perth, for the first time in nearly 18 months, just before Christmas. I spent two weeks at home, catching up with family and friends and remembering just how hot Perth gets - it was 41C on Christmas Day.

Having left an empty house in Perth all this time, the Emperor and I decided it was time to clean it out and rent it out. But two weeks isn't enough time to deal with ten years' worth of accumulated possessions, so leaving Emperor D behind to sort the rest of the house out, and with work back in Switzerland calling, I headed back a week into the new year. Where I've been, ever since, arriving home, often late at night, to a dark and empty apartment and having to cook for myself.

Eighteen months ago I discovered my distaste for having to cook for one. That was during summer; I confess it doesn't get much better in winter. At least I can make soup during winter, which is easy enough to freeze for another night. And pasta is easy to make in quantities for one. But I never thought I'd say this - since it's my favourite food group - but during the week, I got heartily sick of pasta. To the point where I put fish fingers and chips in the oven for dinner one night. Oh dear. Confessions of a food blogger.

Nevertheless, this recipe is a pasta dish that's masquerading as a risotto. But it's super quick. And super easy. And no problem to make for one. It's Nigella Lawson's pasta risotto with peas and pancetta from her latest, the Italian-inspired Nigellissima.

I've always enjoyed watching Nigella on TV, but never really cooked her food because it always seemed, well, rather trashy. I paid a little more attention to this series though as it does fall somewhat under my favourite cuisine, Italian. While she does include some trashy recipes - like this meatzza (seriously) - she does have some gems like the pasta risotto.

The pasta risotto is basically a pea and pancetta risotto, but substitutes annoying, you-have-to-stir-it-all-the-time arborio or carnaroli rice for risoni, a tiny, rice-shaped pasta that doesn't require stirring and cooks in just 10 minutes. Much quicker than the 25 minutes or longer that ordinary risotto takes. Adding a small knob of butter and some grated parmasean at the end - as you would normal risotto - gives this dish it's risotto-like creamy consistency. It tastes good, too - the salty pancetta offsets the sweet baby peas. Best of all, it takes about 15 minutes to make from go to whoa, and can be made in small quantities - including for someone eating da solo.

I still don't like cooking for one - and will be heartily glad when Emperor D returns in a few days' time - but Nigella's risotto-that-isn't does make it a little less painful.
 

Cooking for one is harder than it looks

Triumph

Asparagus risotto, classic tomato spaghetti and aglio, olio e peperoncino all simple recipes that are really quick and tasty – whether for one or six.

Cooking for one is harder than it looks

I picked up Emperor D a couple of days ago after his flight landed back in Switzerland from spending several weeks back in Australia. I myself was abroad for work for three of the seven weeks he was away, but the remaining four weeks left me plenty of time to observe that cooking for one person is not as easy as I thought it would be.

That last statement might sound a little strange, so let me explain. I moved out of home at 20 with Emperor D and we’ve lived together ever since. I’ve never lived on my own or even in a share house, so I’ve never had to cook for just myself. So after Emperor D left, I had to work out what on earth I would cook just for me. It wasn’t that simple; for a start, I don’t have a microwave here, so I couldn’t really cook in bulk to freeze and reheat later.

I’m ashamed to admit that the nights when I just couldn’t be bothered I would resort to sticking fish fingers and chips in the oven. Yes, truly shameful from the Empress. Other nights I would grill some chicken or a shishkebab to have with salad. But more often than not I’d resort to pasta or risotto.

Leek and asparagus risotto - this time minus the leek

Not long before I left Australia, you might remember I made a fantastic porcini mushroom risotto, which I wrote about. I hadn’t made risotto since then, so I decided to try an asparagus risotto, using some fantastic fresh asparagus. The recipe I used was a leek and asparagus risotto that I’d made many times back home, but this time I forgot the leeks, so just used onions instead.

I’ve discovered a couple of culinary challenges in Switzerland, mostly with finding ingredients either at all or of equal quality to what I’m used to back home. A good example of this is liquid stock. Good quality, ready-to-use liquid stock – like the Campbells Real stock in a tetra pack I get back home – just doesn’t seem to exist in Switzerland; or if it does, I’m yet to find it. Here it’s all cubes – which I hate using – or the closest thing I’ve seen to liquid, a congealed gel-like stock that still needs dissolving in water. Usually in winter I make my own stock for all the soups I make, but it’s summer here and I otherwise won’t get the use out of it.

But no matter – this risotto was just for me, and while not the standout of my last attempt at risotto, was perfectly fine. The rice was nice and al dente, the asparagus crisp without being undercooked. The good thing about risotto – and pasta – is that you can control how much of it you make.

Which is why I made a lot of spaghetti while Emperor D was away. When I was having a lazy night but couldn’t bear the thought of fish fingers again, I would put some spaghetti on the boil and simply stir through some good quality pesto from a jar. Or I’d make some simple sauces, like aglio, olio e peperoncino (that’s garlic, olive oil and chilli), or Jamie Oliver’s classic tomato spaghetti.

Aglio, olio e peperoncino is an Italian classic which, when done well, is spectacular. It’s so simple, but it’s the simplicity of the ingredients that make it great. Hot pasta, mixed through with gently fried garlic and chilli in oil, sprinkled with fresh parsley is a delight to eat. Plus it's so easy to make with ingredients most people already have in their pantries.

Jamie Oliver's classic tomato spaghetti

Jamie Oliver’s classic tomato spaghetti is another recipe that can be made using just the ingredients from the pantry. In the time it takes to boil water and cook the pasta, it’s quick and easy to fry garlic and chilli, and throw in some tinned diced tomatoes and fresh basil, gently simmer for a few minutes and toss with al dente spaghetti for something so tasty. And don’t forget the cheese on top either – for me, it has to be pecorino.

So while I adapted these recipes to cook just for me, they’re easy enough to cook for as many or as little people as you need. In the meantime, I’m glad that Emperor D is back so I can cook for two again.

Porcini perfection

Transcendent

I’ve finally done it; the perfect risotto!

Porcini perfection

Regular readers will know that I recently moved to Switzerland, and that the last few weeks were madly chaotic. One thing I tried to do before I left was to clear out the contents of my pantry. So a few days before I left, I used the last of the caster sugar to re-do the chocolate and raspberry pavlova and the last of the Arborio rice, chicken stock and some dried porcini mushrooms for this week’s porcini risotto.

This is one of my favourites and this version was hands down the best risotto I’ve ever made. I certainly learnt my lessons after the seafood risotto debacle earlier.

Perfect porcini risotto

You might remember that in my post on seafood risotto, I saw an episode of Jamie Does where he visited ‘the risotto king’ in Venice and described the consistency of the perfect risotto as like being molten lava. This time I was determined to get the consistency perfect – and I did. By putting in extra stock at the end to make it slightly wetter than normal, and allowing the stock to soak up a little after taking the risotto off the heat, the consistency was not gluggy nor wet, but perfect ‘molten lava’. I was delighted to have made the perfect risotto at last.

I think having accidentally used my sauté pan might have helped – I usually use my saucepan. This time I grabbed my Scanpan sauté pan in a moment of abstraction and I think that might have contributed to helping with the good consistency. Having much more room in the pan allowed the rice to absorb the stock more evenly, allowing it to cook quicker than when I usually do it and it turns gluggy.

Hard to tell from this shot, but molten lava consistency

As for the taste, porcini mushrooms have an intense flavour, especially when they’re dried, which is the only the way I’ve found you can purchase them in Perth. By soaking the dried mushrooms in hot water, they soften enough to be able to chop them. Plus the water they’ve soaked can be added in place of stock for a richer, more concentrated flavour.

It all adds to a risotto that I will continue to make time and time again for something relatively quick, easy, simple and – most importantly – tasty.

N.B – until I find a house with a kitchen, I can’t make anything else, so this will be the last of the posts for a few weeks. But keep cooking!