The FiFi Report 351

Fennel risotto with ricotta and dried chilli (risotto ai finocchi con ricotta e peperoncino) adulterated from jamieoliver.com

I love, love, love risotto. Almost as much as handbags. It’s a wonder in the kitchen. I am always looking for new versions. You can cook it ahead of time for a dinner party. You can cook it as a main course or serve as an accessory as a side dish. It can vegetarian or not. It can be whipped into cute risotto balls or frozen and cooked up when George Clooney can ‘t be bothered cooking. You got to love that. It’s as versatile as a trench coat; Yes, that versatile.

You need for 6 blokes, 8 fashionista or 20 starlets at Cannes.

½ teaspoon fennel seeds
extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
2 bulbs of fennel, finely sliced, herby tops reserved
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 x risotto bianco recipe
2 small dried chillies
4 tablespoons good crumbly ricotta
zest and juice of 1 lemon or add preserved lemon
Parmesan cheese, for accessorising

• Slip into your chic Burberry puffa jacket and arctic leggings. Add snugly fur vest. Oh and a beanie.
• Stoke the fire and turn it up, up, up.
• Pour a huge wine and try not to gulp. Please try.
• Now toss your fennel seeds into a pestle and mortar and bash up to a powder. Think of all your ex husbands and you should have a powder is two seconds flat.
• Chop up the garlic as small as your discipline in not buying designer bags.
• Chop the fresh fennel as finely as the garlic. Keep the herby tops recommends Jamie.
• Juice the lemons and and zest it. Not it that order.
• Chop up preserved lemon (a quarter) if you have any lying around asking for trouble.
• Now time for thinking of frenemies: Bash up the dried chillies in the pestle and mortar until it’s like fine powder.
• Find a big, wide saucepan, get it going hot and then add a couple of splashes of olive oil and fry the garlic until soft as an Hermes bag.
• Then quickly add the poor old bashed up fennel seeds and the sliced fennel.
• Toss in a pinch of salt and pepper and turn down to a medium-low heat.
• Now toss the lid on the pan and cook nice and slowly for around 20 minutes, until the fennel’s soft and sweet as you are after a facial.
• Gulp down another wine. Or two.
• Okey dokey: now time to start the risotto bianco as usual and continue right through the recipe until the rice is half cooked.
• Half-way through Stage 3, stir in the sautéd fennel mix, then keep cooking the risotto until the rice is perfectly cooked.
• Now when you are at Stage 4 of Jamie’s risotto recipe, add the butter and Parmesan, then add the crumbled ricotta and lemon zest and preserved lemon if you have it.
• Time for a taste test: Add more lemon juice if you think you need it to balance the taste of fennel.
• Divide between your plates, sprinkle over your fennel tops and the ground chilli.
• Accessorise with a little fresh Parmesan.
• Fabulous!