Tomato Risotto: Cooking with Tessa Kiros

What’s Going on Today: Packing for return to NYC, building last few sand castles on the beach.

Naptime Goals: Reading on the balcony, gather up toys to pack in the diaper bag for the flight.

Tonight’s Meal: Tomato Risotto, Salad

It seems appropriate to kick-off my Cooking with Tessa series while on vacation. If you’ve ever read one of her books you’ll understand that Tessa’s approach to cooking is very similar to mine. She is an accomplished professional chef (I am not a professional, but I feel like one when I cook from her books), busy wife and mother of two. It is clear through her writing and photographs that she is constantly fitting great food into family life and I am simply in awe for her capability to do so.

I’ve been cooking from her books for quite some time, and this is one of my favorite dishes. It’s not a stretch to say that I make this at least twice a month, so it only makes sense that I share this recipe first. 

I chose to make this during our stay in Florida because it is so easy and delicious. Though my daughter has been taking long naps on vacation, (there is nothing like fresh air to tire a kid out!), I’ve been using that free time to relax myself. Therefore, when it comes to make dinner each night I stick to menus that are light, delicious and easy to assemble. In this case I made the Risotto and salad right before dinner time and served some fresh fruit for dessert. 

Note: I plan to continue Cooking with Tessa on a bi-monthly basis, giving you a background on her and her work, sharing favorite recipes and fun tidbits along the way. Enjoy!

Tomato Risotto

Adapted from Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros

½ red onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, smashed

Pinch red pepper

2 large basil leaves, torn

1 c. Arborio rice

4 T. olive oil

3 c. vegetable broth

1 c. crushed tomatoes, with juices

2/3 c. fresh mozzarella, cut into small cubes

½ c. Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

1. In a wide heavy bottomed pan heat the olive oil. Add the onion and garlic, cook for 5 minutes, or until light and golden. Add the red pepper flakes and rice, cook for one minute more.

2. Next, add ½ c. of the tomatoes, 1 ½ c. hot broth and 1 of the torn basil leaves. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then, add the remaining tomatoes, broth and basil and cook for 10 more minutes, until risotto is fully cooked.

3. Scoop out the smashed garlic and discard. Stir in the mozzarella and Parmesan. Serve with extra Parmesan and drizzle of olive oil. 

Naptime Notes:

Naptime Recipe Variation & Ideas: Risotto is one of best kinds of flexible meals. You can add, or subtract, almost anything from it and still have a delicious dish. In this case you could consider adding different herbs, chopped vegetables or even some crumbled sausage. Have fun with the flavors!

Naptime Stopwatch: On vacation I was able to make this in 30 minutes from start to finish. Serve it hot, or make it ahead and reheat it when you want to serve it.

Naptime Notes: This is a great dish for both children and adults. Everyone in the family loves it, it even makes a great first course at a dinner party.

Napping with Trends

I am not the kind of person who spends much time worrying about being trendy. I don't replace my entire wardrobe seasonally, redecorate my house yearly, or choose vacation destinations based on their celebrity quotient. Instead, I like to feel out the latest trends before I invest my time or money. Some fads come and go in a blink, while others become mainstays that are worth getting to know. This recently happened with the food trend of browned butter, which is regular butter that is toasted until it becomes golden brown and adopts a warm nutty taste. A few years ago most home cooks had no idea what it was, but these days it is all the rage.

I'll be the first admit that I did not initially embrace the concept of browned butter. I simply didn't understand how or why browned butter could really change the flavor of a dish. In fact, I don't think I would ever have started cooking with it had it not been for my mother-in-law's browned butter sage sauce. She served it over chicken last fall and, after one bite of the warm almost almond-like flavor, I was hooked. I started searching for recipes with browned butter and made several interesting discoveries, including one from Cook's Illustrated which cited browned butter as the key ingredient in their best-ever chocolate chip cookies. In keeping with this trend, last month's Vogue featured an article by Jeffrey Steingarten devoted entirely to the unique taste of browned butter, chiding us all for not seeing it's benefits earlier.


I knew my conversion to being a browned butter-devotee was complete when it became my go-to method for all of my favorite homemade risotto recipes. Risotto has always been a big family favorite of ours, and now it is even more so. When risotto is prepared with browned butter, it's normally light creamy flavor gets deeper and richer. The toasted butter adds a whole new dimension, it's nutty flavor seems to enhance the dish's rich earthy chicken and vegetable flavors.

Cooking my go-to recipe for Browned Butter Asparagus Risotto is fairly simple. To save myself time in the evening, during my daughter's afternoon naptime I begin my meal preparation by chopping the onion, blanching the asparagus and preparing chicken stock. This way, when it comes to dinnertime, making the risotto is merely a matter of combining the ingredients and stirring lazily with my wooden spoon. To add salt to this particular meal I like to make baked prosciutto "chips," these lend the toothsome rice a nice light crunch. I know that in my household browned butter is here to stay, and, I think, after you try this recipe you will agree. Browned butter is no longer a trend, it is a classic.

Naptime's Browned Butter Asparagus Risotto with Prosciutto Chips
adapted from recipes by Giade de Laurentiis and Mario Batali
1 lb. fresh asparagus, blanched and cut into 2 inch pieces
5 T. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 c. Arborio rice
1/2 c. white wine
4 c. chicken stock (I use Knorr bouillon cubes when I don't have homemade stock on hand)
1/2 c. fresh grated parmesan

1. In a wide saucepan, I usually use my Dutch oven, heat the butter over medium heat. Allow the butter to warm until it turns a warm, golden brown and has a nutty fragrance. About 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.
2. Add onion and saute until translucent. About 4 minutes.
3. Add rice and stir until it is coated with the butter and well-mixed with the onion. Then, add the wine and deglaze the bottom of the pan, scraping up any browned bits.
4. Simmer until the wine has completely evaporated. Then, add 1/2 c. of the chicken stock and stir until it is completely absorbed. Continue adding the chicken stock by 1/2 c. until it absorbed. About 10 minutes.
5. Once all the chicken stock has been added, cook until the rice is tender to the bite. About 5 minutes.
6. Remove risotto from heat and add remaining parmesan and butter. Stir until completely absorbed.
7. Finally, add the asparagus pieces, stirring into the risotto. Break prosciutto pieces over rice and serve.

Baked Prosciutto Chips
4 oz. prosciutto slices

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Spread prosciutto over wire cooling rack. Place rack inside a jelly roll pan lined with aluminum foil.
3. Bake prosciutto for 10 minutes, or until crispy.

Naptime Notes:
Naptime Recipe Props: This is a delicious recipe that is flexible in every way. If you would rather make it with vegetable stock, go right ahead. Or, if you'd rather use mushrooms or peas instead of asparagus, that is fine, too.
Naptime Stopwatch: Pre-chopping the onions and blanching the asparagus saves a lot of time when assembling the meal in the evening. This way, the total assembly in the evening is about 30 minutes, maximum.
Naptime Reviews: Adults and children alike love risotto, including mine. It is soft enough for my toddler to chew, but sophisticated all of us for dinner.