More Risotto Fun

The last time I tried to make risotto, I pretty much failed at finding "risotto" rice. To prevent this from happening again my mom gifted me with two boxes of arborio rice. They've pretty much been sitting in my pantry begging me to come up with a reason to use them. And when I saw a recipe for Grilled Shrimp & Meyer Lemon Risotto in an old issue of Family Circle I knew it was time.

Just as a side note, I don't subscribe or normally buy Family Circle. But I have no problem reading other people's recycled copied they've read and are now giving away.

Back to the recipe at hand. I guess it'd better to say I was inspired by their recipe because I made a few big changes. First I didn't use shrimp, mainly because I was too lazy. Second I couldn't find any meyer lemons, so I just went with regular ones. Also the recipe called for a shallot. And while the boy had told me he bought some, what he thought was a shallot wound up being purple garlic. So here's my version of their recipe.

Lemon Risotto
3 cups chicken broth mixed with 1 and 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 package of arborio rice
2/3 cup white wine
Zest from 1 and 1/2 lemons (Yes an odd amount, but its what we happened to have)
juice from 1 lemon
1 block of Fontina cheese graded (The official recipe called for 1 cup)
6 (or so) basil leaves chopped (mine were of course from my garden)
salt & pepper to taste

Place broth and water in medium-sized saucepan and bring to simmer.
In a large saucepan, heat olive oil and add rice. Stir until rice is coated. Cook for 2 minutes.
Add wine and cook till absorbed.
Add broth. Cook over medium-low heat stirring until absorbed. Continue with the rest of the broth mixture adding 1/2 cup at a time.
Stir in the zest, juice, cheese, salt & pepper. Stir in basil just before serving.
I think it wound up turning out really well. The boy complained that it was a little too lemon-y for his taste, but I thought it had just the right amount of lemon flavor. It made a ton of food, and we wound up with quite a bit of leftover. (Which I really need to finish eating!) I think it was a success, and even though risotto is more of a winter food, I think the lemon made it work for June. (There's also the fact that we have central air, which works wonders at cooling down the house.)

Anyone have a favorite type of risotto? Or do you have any supposed winter foods that you'll still eat in the summer?

~Shoshanah