Smokey Blue Cheese Risotto with Almonds and Pear Sauce

Smokey Blue Cheese Risotto with Almonds and Pear Sauce

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In a medium sized sauce pan, heat approximately 3 cups ofvegetable broth* with a pinch of saffron to just under a simmer. Keep this nice and warm, not boiling, on a back burner.

In a second pan, prepare your pear sauce. over medium heat add:

• three peeled, sliced and cored pears [or one can of pears in juice, drained, reserving liquid]
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tbs lemon juice
• 1/3 cup of pear juice or wine or water

Simmer over medium heat while preparing your risotto, approximatley 30 minutes. Mash your fruit to small sized chunks, or blend to make smooth.

In your designated risotto pan [wow, you're going to have three pans going at once! Good job, now you're cooking!], heat on medium:

• 1 Tbs of olive oil
• 1 Tbs butter

Add to risotto pan and saute:

• 3/4 of a small onion, diced
• 2 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp salt

When your onion is translucent [I actually like to take mine to golden around the edges], add to the saute pan:

• 1 1/2 cups of arborio rice
• 1 Tbs butter

and bring heat up to med high, stiring your rice almost constantly, for approximately 1-2minutes, not allowing the rice to color.

Now, procede to make your risotto in the traditional style:

• add to your sauted rice a good splash of white wine, stiring constantly. [I used headbutt's Vintners Reserve throughout the cooking of this dish and enjoyed it.]
• add one ladle of your warm, backburnered broth, at a time, stirring almost constantly
• when the broth has been absorbed by the rice mixture, add another ladle of broth
• continue ladling and stiring until the rice is just cooked all the way through, approximately 20-25 minutes
• I like my last liquid addition to be wine rather than broth, so add a splash here at the end

Turn off the heat and stir in to your risotto:

• 1 Tbs lemon juice
• 1/3 lb of blue cheese, crumbled [I used a variety calledFourme D' Ambert]
• about 3 Tbs grated parmigiano reggiano
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup smoked roasted almonds, bashed a bit into chunks [roasted hazelnuts work very well too]

Taste and season with salt and pepper.
Plate risotto, splash a wave of the pear sauce over the top and sprinkle with any leftover nut bits you may have.