Image By Boston Organics
2 medium-sized eggplants 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon of olive oil kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 onion, diced 2 cloves of garlic, crushed 7 ounces of arborio rice 1/2 cup of dry white wine 3 1/4 cups of hot vegetable stock zest of 1 Meyer lemon + 2 tablespoons of freshly-squeezed juice 1 1/2 tablespoons of unsalted butter 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese, plus more to serve
diced basil or flat-leaf parsley, to serve
The first step of this recipe is to literally burn one of your eggplants. To do this, preheat your broiler and then use a sharp knife to make 4-5 cuts in the eggplant. Place the eggplant on a foil-lined baking sheet and broil it for about an hour.Once the eggplant is cool enough to handle, slice it in half, longways, and scoop out the flesh. Toss the skin. Roughly chop the eggplant flesh and set it aside.Dice the second eggplant into 1/2 inch pieces. Heat about 1/3 cup of olive oil in a medium saucepan and fry the eggplant, in 2-3 batches, until golden. Toss it frequently as it cooks so as to not burn it. Place the eggplant in a colander and sprinkle it with kosher salt.Add the onion and the rest of the oil to the same pan and cook until soft. Add the garlic, cooking for a couple of minutes. Next, add the rice and stir to coat the grains. Pour in the wine and let it cook off for 2-3 minutes (turn up the heat if it is not hissing). Once the wine is nearly cooked off, dial down the heat to medium.Pour in a ladle-ful of hot stock and stir. Keep adding the stock, approximately 1/2 a cupful at a time, and stir the rice continuously as it cooks. Once you have used up all of the stock, remove your pan from the heat and add about half of the lemon zest, the lemon juice, butter, Parmesan, most of the pan-fried eggplant (set some aside for topping), eggplant flesh and season with salt. Stir and season with more salt and pepper, as needed.
To serve, scoop risotto into bowls, top with some of the remaining pan-fried eggplant and lemon zest. Have plenty of extra Parmesan cheese on hand.
Tested and Approved by Boston Organics (Brittany Roberts)
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This recipe was most recently featured in
Boston Organics Newsletter No. 03 of 2015.