BACON, PEAR & AUBERGINE RISOTTO   (feeds 3-4)

Ingredients :

1 medium onion - very finely chopped

40g butter

half a tsp Herbes du Provence

half a tsp dried Basil

1.5 ltr Ham Stock (from a cube is fine)

350g Arborio Rice

glug of Rapeseed oil

400g cooked bacon/gammon joint

1 aubergine, sliced, griddled and then cut to 1cm dice

1 pear, peeled cut to 1cm dice (I used a Conference)

50g finely grated (microplaned) Parmesan Cheese.

Method :

1.  Cut the aubergine into 1cm slices, sprinkle with a little oil and season very lightly before cooking on a very hot griddle pan. Make sure that plenty of griddle marks make it onto the aubergine as this creates a fantastic smokey flavour.  Once cooled, cut the aubergine to a 1cm dice.

2.  Peel the pear and cut to a 1cm dice before placing into a bowl of acidulated water (simply put some water into a bowl and then squeeze in some lemon juice) to prevent the flesh from oxidising and turning brown.

3.  Cut the cooked ham to a 1cm dice and set aside.

4.  Finally, cut the onion to as fine a dice as you can possibly manage.

5.  In a saucepan, make up the stock and heat to a lively simmer.

6.  Pour a good glug of rapeseed oil into a large pan and then melt the butter into this.  Add the finely diced onion and allow to sweat over a low heat until the onion is soft but not coloured.

7.  Now turn the heat up to a good sizzle before adding the rice.  Stir vigorously, ensuring each grain of rice is well coated in the oils, taking care not to let the rice stick to the pan.

8.  Once the rice is hot, pour in a ladleful of stock and stir like crazy while it is sucked up into the rice.  Add another ladleful of stock, the dried herbs, all of the ham and about a quarter of the aubergine whilst keeping the whole mixture moving.  Keep adding the stock, whenever the mixture starts to get too stiff.

9.  After around ten minutes of this process, drain the pear pieces and add them to the pan along with the remaining aubergine.  Keep adding stock and stirring until the rice is cooked through, which should take another ten or fifteen minutes.  Once the rice is tender, stir in the parmesan and remove the pan from the heat.  Leave the risotto to rest for two to three minutes before serving onto warmed plates.

From http://jennyeatwellsrhubarbginger.blogspot.com