Veneto style risotto

Here's a recipe for a risotto that tastes like Veneto and that you pretty likely have the ingredients for already. Good and simple.

Ingredients (x2):
200 g risotto rice
a tablespoon butter or margarine
1 vegetarian or meat bouillon cube
500 ml water
1 onion
1/4 celery
1 carrot
2 small potatoes
nutmeg
black pepper
salt
cooking cream (optional)
parmesan + parsley

Preparation:
Chop the onion and celery very fine. Cut the carrot into small pieces. Cut the potatoes into 2-3 mm thick slices. Put the onion, celery and carrot into a microwave-resistant container. Pour some olive oil on them and mix. Then put these vegetables into the microwave for a minute and half at 800 watts. Take it out, mix it and put it again into the microwave for 2 minutes.

Prepare the broth: let the bouillon cube dissolve in water in a pan. Give the rice a golden, transparent colour by frying it for a few minutes in a pan with butter. Add the microwaved vegetables and sliced potatoes into the rice. Add broth little by little and cook for the time indicated in the rice package.

Mix the risotto for most of the cooking time and add salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg in halfway of the cooking time. In the last few minutes of cooking time, add some cooking cream (less than a dl though) if you want to make your risotto more creamy. Serve with parsley and parmesan.

Fusilli with zucchini and tomato sauce

I make this dish quite often. It won't fail and it is not complicated. Celery (the white cube kind) and basil make this dish perfect, but you don't have to run to the shop if you don't have them at home right now. Dried basil is also acceptable. Just as well as fusilli, you can use almost any type of short pasta (from my experience I'd say that conchiglie and orecchiete are pretty good for it).

Ingredients x2:
175 g fusilli or other short pasta
1 onion
1-2 cloves garlic
a small zucchina
3 tomatoes
70 g white celery
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt
pepper
basil
parmesan

Preparation:
Grind the garlic and chop the onion and celery finely. Fry them all on a frying pan with olive oil. Once they have got a bit of colour, add the zucchina that you previously have cut into a few centimeters' long sticks. Peel the tomatoes and remove their seeds. Cut the tomatoes into pieces and add them into the pan. Fry the vegetables on a rather hot heat for some three minutes, then lower the heat. Add salt and pepper according to your taste. As last ingredient add the basil and let the sauce still rest a few minutes on the cooker on low heat. Cook the pasta in lightly salted water and when 'al dente', remove the water. Set the pasta on plates and add the sauce. Serve with grated parmesan cheese.