Bacon and Green Pea Risotto with Fried Eggs

I waited a long time to try to make risotto at home, and it wasn’t until my supermarket had a sale on arborio rice that I decided now is the time. Risotto just always sounded so intimidating, and after watching a lot of shows on Food Network, I had seen and heard of a lot of risotto horror stories. However, making risotto is a surprisingly simple process that just requires a bit of stirring for a delicious payoff. There are lots of variations of risotto out there, using everything from squid ink to saffron, but this recipe comes from kitchen staples you probably have on hand. A lowly bag of frozen peas, some bacon, and some eggs all come together to make an easy one dish meal.

Bacon and Green Pea Risotto with Fried Eggs

Ingredients

Butter

Olive oil

1 large shallot or medium onion, diced finely

1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed

1 1/3 cup arborio rice

1/2 cup white wine

2 cups chicken stock

2 Tbs. cream cheese

Salt and pepper

1/2 cup frozen green peas (thawed)

5 slices of bacon, cooked and chopped finely

4 eggs

(Note, the wine can be substituted for chicken stock)

Directions

1. In a sauce pan, heat up a pat of butter with some olive oil and saut the shallots/onions with the garlic for about 5 minutes until softened, but not colored.

2. Add the rice and stir around in the pan for a couple of minutes until the rice begins to become slightly translucent at the edges. Deglaze the pan with the 1/2 of wine. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and burn off the alcohol.

3. On a neighboring burner, in a saucepan heat the two cups of chicken stock and keep warm. Add the hot stock mixture to the pan with the rice in ladleful increments. After each addition, stir the rice over medium heat until all the liquid is absorbed. Then add another ladelful. Repeat this process until all the stock is used up, or until the rice is tender but still al dente. (This takes around ~20 minutes). When the risotto is done, add salt and pepper to taste, then stir in the green peas and cream cheese. Keep warm.

5. In a non-stick frying pan, fry the eggs sunny side up and season with salt and pepper.

6. To serve, add risotto to plates and top with the fried eggs and garnish with bacon.