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.

Risotto of spinach, leek and peas

Here's a recipe for a very green risotto. It tastes fresh and in winter it reminds me of summer, even if using frozen spinach and peas! I created this recipe once when these three vegetables were the only ones I had at home and I had to improvise. Good that I did.

Ingredients (x2):
200 g risotto rice
500 ml vegetarian broth
1 onion
200 g frozen spinach
100 g peas
1 small leek
3 tablespoons ricotta
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
nutmeg
salt
pepper
soft cheese (In Italy I'd use Fontina, in Finland Koskenlaskija, not sure what the equivalent is over here!)
parsley

Preparation:
Chop the onion into fine pieces. Chop the leek first into circles and then cut them in 4. Pour these two vegetables on a frying pan with olive oil and fry them for 5-7 minutes. Put a bouillon cube into 500 ml of water in a pan and let it dissolve on the cooker.

Put the rice and the butter into the saucepan. Put them on the cooker and keep them in medium heat, mixing continuously. When the rice has got a golden and more transparent colour, add the spinach and a part of the broth. Mix all the time so that the rice doesn't get stuck in the bottom. Check the indications in the package for the cooking time of the rice. Add more broth little by little. Add salt, pepper and less than a teaspoon of nutmeg. At halfway of the cooking time add the peas and the leek you have previously chopped.

By the end of the cooking time, add ricotta. Cut the soft cheese into pieces that you will set on the food when serving. Cut the parsley leaves smaller and add it on the portions.