Zucchini Risotto-style

[Gaelen]

When it comes to recreating risotto, I have tried riced cauliflower and grated zucchini, but I wasn't happy. All of them, mixed with the right ingredients, have the wonderful flavors of risotto, but nothing I've made has ever had the texture of a good risotto.

This week, I had one of those accidents in the kitchen that maybe, maybe is a true 'risotto style' method of preparing zucchini. Make sure to try to get the small ones, about 1 1/2 inches around, so that you don't have to mess with the zucchini seeds, or the texture changes between the zucchini near the peel and the zucchini near the seeds. No need to peel, salt or drain the zucchini or press it prior to using it; I think the moisture in the zucchini may even help 'toast' it a bit in the sizzling butter. And pay attention to the texture as you're cooking it...you want it crisp-tender, but not in any way mushy or clumping. Don't be afraid to raise or lower the heat if you're not getting the texture you want.

Today, I made it again...same quantities, same herbs, same result. :D But I don't know if I just got lucky twice in a row because I'm using first crop zucchin, or if there's something I'm doing without noting it that produces this result. So calling all testers...does this method of cooking the zucchini really make it "risotto-style" when it's not in my kitchen? ;)

Counts are for the entire recipe, which I easily made into a meal by topping it with a soft-poached egg. But it makes enough to divide into two servings for a side dish, or add other types of protein to make it into a full meal. Have fun with this; I know I am. Next, sun-dried tomato and olive risotto. :D

* Exported from MasterCook *

Zucchini Risotto-Style -- 12g protein, 6g ECC

Recipe By : Gaelen/PAS
Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time : 20 minutes
Categories : vegetarian

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 cup chopped zucchini -- (see directions)
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup diced mushrooms
1/2 teaspoon chopped garlic
1 tablespoon pesto sauce
2 tablespoons pine nuts
2 tablespoons shredded parmesan cheese

Melt the butter in a large skillet (large enough to hold a cup and a half of vegetables and pine nuts in a thin layer, without crowding. Chop the mushrooms into 1/4 inch dice. Slice the zucchini into very thin slices (about 1/8 inch thick) and then finely chop the slices so that the chopped zucchini is about the size of fat grains of rice. If your food processor or chopper will give you this fine a chop with consistently sized pieces, by all means use that! I should probably try it in my Magic Bullet, but I was in a hurry. ;)

Stir the mushrooms, zucchini, garlic and pine nuts into the melted sizzling butter and toss to coat.

Let the mixture 'toast' on medium high heat without stirring for 3-5 minutes, until the zucchini bits are turning clear and at least half of the liquid from the
vegetables has evaporated. Add in the pesto sauce, stirring to coat all the pieces. Adding an olive oil-based pesto sauce to the butter-based saute helps recreate the creamy texture of a risotto when the butter and oil mix. If you don't have pesto sauce on hand, stir in two teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil, and the dried or fresh herbs you like the most.

Let the mixture continue cooking to form a thick sauce for the vegetables without stirring it too much (you don't want to break up the zucchini bits.) After 3-4 minutes, sprinkle the shredded parmesan over the pan and stir to combine. Serve garnished with fresh herbs of the type you used in cooking (basil if you used pesto sauce, etc.)

NOTES:
This recipe is the closest I've come to recreating one of my favorite mushroom risotto recipes from 'The Vegetarian Epicure' by Anna Thomas.
Toast/sauteing the pine nuts, zucchini and mushrooms in the butter in a hot skillet cooks them quickly while keeping their texture a little al dente, very close to the texture you get when you toast uncooked short grain rice prior to adding broth to make a risotto.

The oil and butter combination during the saute process is critical to
producing the creamy saucy texture that makes this risotto-style. You could also mix in two tablespoons of cream at the end of cooking if you like a risotto that's a little thinner, or want an even creamier texture.

The recipe easily doubles, or quadruples to feed more people--just make
sure to use a large enough skillet so that the vegetables get a chance to
toast/saute in a flat layer, and that while cooking as much liquid as possible can evaporate and create the sauce.

Yield: 1 1/2 cups
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Per Serving : 391 Calories; 36g Fat (79.3% calories from fat); 12g Protein; 9g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 58mg Cholesterol; 280mg Sodium.

[Donna7]

Gaelen, this sounds so good! Do you think jarred mushrooms would work, or do you need fresh to get the right consistency? I order my groceries online and was just putting in an order...went back to edit it to add the pesto and pine nuts. The brand of pesto I was going to order is Christopher Ranch...I don't think I've ever bought pesto, so I don't know which brands are good. I can't tell from the online description if it's packed in oil or not.
Thanks...Donna

[BethB]

Well except for the mushrooms this recipe is perfect! ;)

Seriously, I have some of the right size zucchini on hand, so I'll give it a try. It's my favorite veggie, and even without the mushrooms, this recipe looks fantastic.

[Mitra]

I'll try this with my tomato-olive risotto recipe, but I may need to wait until next week because my husband doesn't like the idea of any food pretending to be something it isn't - so I'll do it for my lunch while he's at work. If I think he'd like it, then it would probably be better received if I present it as a way to make courgettes more interesting rather than as pretend risotto! The other option is that when he's finished his weight loss and can allow a few more carbs, I could serve it as a mix, with just a little rice, and using the courgette to make the rice go further.

[Gaelen]

Donna, any basil pesto sauce or "pesto genovese" you buy will include a fair amount of olive oil; it's part of the recipe. Can't answer about the canned or jarred mushrooms subbing in for the fresh ones; the only jarred mushrooms I ever have on hand are the Italian marinated/pickled ones I sometimes use in an antipasto platter/salad.

BethB, I used the mushroom risotto recipe as an inspiration, but you could definitely take it any other direction you like. I would increase the amount of zucchini by the amount of mushrooms you take out, though, or sub in an equal amount of something else with the texture of fresh mushrooms.

Mitra, I am also not fond of the 'faux risotto' label, which is why I'm calling it a risotto style of prepping zucchini. ;) I don't call mashed cauliflower "fauxtatoes" either...no veggie should have to apologize for being what it is by calling itself "faux" something or "almost" something else. I do like adding in a small amount of wild rice for the texture it would give; Fran McCullough does this in a few recipes in The Low Carb Cookbook and the times I've tried it, it works really well. Can't wait to hear how the tomato-olive risotto turns out!

[BethB]

Gaelen, what veggies would you suggest instead of mushrooms?

I agree with not calling things "Faux". I've always referred to my mashed cauliflower as Fauxtatoes as that is what my recipe is called. Regardless, it's still mashed cauliflower and is soooo yummy.

[Gaelen]

BethB, you could either just increase the amount of zucchini by the amount you'd have used of the mushrooms, or you could use raw fresh cauliflower, daikon radish, a little bell pepper diced very very small, maybe even sweet onion, chayote (squash), a little jicama, some finely shredded carrot or radish? Since youre only talking 1/4 cup, you could pretty much pick any firm-textured veggie and go with it.

Speaking of the dice, I was watching Blaine Jelus make his ground chicken and cauliflower stuffed cabbage yesterday, and he was trying to describe how to chop the cauliflower for the filling. And he had the same problem describing it that I did, but he did say something in passing that I liked and I'm going to steal for this recipe description:

rice dice: chop into pieces that are about the same size as a grain of rice

[Donna7]

I made this today for lunch...it wasn't really creamy, but I did use jarred mushrooms without any mushroom liquid added. The pesto had vegetable oil instead of olive oil. The flavors were wonderful together, though, regardless of texture! I really enjoyed it with some leftover cold grilled chicken from dinner last night! Thanks...
Donna

[Mitra]

I finally made this.

I started by cooking a little chopped red onion in olive oil, then added some chopped sun-dried tomato, coarsely pureed kalamata olives (about a Tbsp), a slurp of red wine and a bit of leftover tinned tomato (one tomato and a bit of juice). I cooked them until most of the liquid was gone, then added the chopped courgette. I let that cook for three or four minutes, then added some black pepper, parmesan and a few leaves of basil.

It definitely fell into the family of creamy risotto-type textures, though with a bit less body than risotto.

The olivada/tomato started out from a microwave recipe for risotto by Barbara Kafka, then somewhere along the way interbred with an olivada/tomato recipe for pasta sauce from Deborah Madison (possibly in Savoury Way?). As you might expect, it's robustly flavoured, and probably not everyone's cup of tea, and I don't think there's much about it that's authentically Italian, but I always had a bit of a weakness for it, so thank you, Gaelen, for giving me the opportunity to indulge again :).

[Gaelen]

mmmm....sounds Sicilian enough to me, Mitra. :)
Actually, I made a sweet onion and pine nut version this weekend, one of the times I thought food was a good idea.

This time, since it involves soooo many onions, I sauteed the onions and mushrooms and a little garlic together in butter, then removed them from the pan, added more butter and a swirl (about a teaspoon) of olive oil, and toasted the rice-diced zucchini. when the zucchini was toasty but not cooked through, I mixed the onions/mushrooms back into the pan, along with a heaping teaspoon of pesto and a handful of pine nuts, and let them all saute away for a minute. It wasn't very creamy, and then I decided to go back to the basics of a risotto:

toast the rice
stir in the 'extras' to combine flavors
mix in stock or water or wine a bit at a time until the rice absorbs the liquid
stir in the cheese if you're using it
serve


So I stirred in a little bit of water, followed by a couple of tablespoons of grated parmigiano reggiano, and I had an instantly creamy texture. But I think if I'd truly 'toasted' the zucchini, instead of cooking it second after the onions, I'd have preserved the slightly 'al dente' texture I got the first couple times.

I really think there are probably some technique things that are critical to this working out...

use crisp, fresh ingredients for the base...other things are fine as add-ins, but not if they comprise too much of the stuff that's supposed to help create the risotto texture, and 'toast' them, almost to the point of barely carmelized edges
cut the fresh stuff into rice-size bits with 'tight' or squared edges, rather than 'shaved' edges. The tight edges seem to absorb the oils and liquids differently than broken 'shaved' or grated edges do
don't forget when it's cooked down to add in that last slosh of liquid and mix it all together; that's the creaminess part!


This recipe definitely needs more work to perfect it...hmmm...just in time for zucchini season. ;)