Cherry tomatoes and mozzarella risotto

Marcus Wareing
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The recipe for this cherry tomatoes and mozzarella risotto is from Marcus Wareing in his book “One Perfect Ingredient”.  The photo above is also from that publication but I can tell you, it looks exactly like in the photo.

Ingredients:
  • 1 head of garlic
  • 30 cherry tomatoes
  • About 150 g of mozzarella divided in 20 mini-balls
  • A handful of fresh, young marjoram sprigs. Use other herbs such as basic if you prefer (this is a comment of mine)
  • 825 ml of good stock (the recipe says chicken or vegetable stock, clear stock is better but I made it with ham hock stock in the past, it was amazing)
  • 175 mL of tomatoes juice (I use a can of cherry tomatoes)
  • 100 g unsalted butter, diced
  • 400 g arborio rice
  • 100 ml dry white wine
  • 2 tbsp tomato puree
  • 75 g Parmesan cheese, grated
  • sea salt flakes and freshly grounded black pepper.
Method:
  1. Place the garlic cloves skin on (THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT) in a shallow roasting tray with olive oil, salt and dry herbs, put under the grill for 20 min or until soft in the middle.  You can also do them in a small frypan on very low heat.  The inside will be melted (and even if you don’t like garlic, you will love this version of it, trust me!).
  2. Put the tomatoes in another roasting tray, again toss with olive oil and rock salt and place in the oven.  Roast for 15 minutes.
  3. Season the mozzarella balls with salt, dried basil, pepper and lemon juice; put aside.
  4. Mix broth and tomato paste and tomato juice, heat on low temperature. Keep warm.
  5.  Melt half the butter in a thick based and deep pan.  Add the rice and stir for 2 minutes.
    Add the white wine. Turn the heat down.  Add the broth in small portions: let the rice absorb it and stir after each addition. Cook for 15-20 minutes stirring between additions.
  6. When the rice is almost al-dente , stir in the remaining butter and the parmesan. Remove from the heat and stir in gently the mozzarella balls and roasted tomatoes and roasted garlic. Add a splash of the roasted tomatoes juice is any.
  7. Before serving, add the fresh marjoram sprigs