Ingredients
- Risotto
- 2 cups Arborio rice
- 1 onion, minced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ cup white wine
- 2 cups tomato purée
- 2 cups chicken stock
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese,
grated - 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin
olive oil
- 1 tablespoon basil, chiffonade
- 1 cup tomatoes, peeled
and seeded
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Monkfish
- 2 filets of monkfish loin
- 8 slices apple wood bacon,
- 4 slices for each filet
- 2 sprigs rosemary, 1 sprig for each filet
- 2 sage leaves,
- 1 sage leaf for each filet
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Method
Heat a 4-quart sauce pan on medium heat, add olive oil. Bring to temperature and add onions. Sauté very well, approximately 3 to 4 minutes.
Add rice and allow to toast until rice appears to have a white spot in the center. Deglaze the pan with white wine and reduce liquid until pan appears dry.
Mix the stock and tomato purée and heat to a simmer. Slowly add stock and tomato purée stock to the rice, one third at a time.
Season monkfish with salt and pepper.
Wrap each filet in bacon. Sauté filets in olive oil until bacon starts to get crisp. Place rosemary and sage under each browned filet.
Finish cooking filets in a 375 degree oven. When cooked, keep warm with aluminum foil and allow filets to rest.
Finish cooking the rice by repeating addition of stock and tomato purée until all the liquid has been used. When rice is cooked and all of the liquid has been absorbed, remove the risotto from the heat and stir in chopped tomatoes, cheese, butter, olive oil and basil. Stir well to create creamy consistency, adjust seasoning as needed.
Heat 6 bowls. Slice each monkfish filet into nine slices. Spoon a generous amount of risotto into the center of each bowl. Top each serving with three slices of monkfish and garnish with basil leaves.
Tips on Tomatoes
- A good serrated knife is far superior to a flat-edged knife for slicing tomatoes. If you use a flat-edged knife, be certain it is very sharp or you will squash and bruise the tomato flesh when slicing.
- Do not use an aluminum pot, pan or utensil when cooking tomatoes. The acid in the tomato reacts unfavorably with the aluminum and can pit and discolor the aluminum cookware.
- The high acid content of tomatoes naturally slow down the cooking process of some other foods. For example, beans cooked with tomatoes may take up to twenty percent more cooking time than without.
- Plum tomatoes are best used for sauces. Globe, cherry, and grape tomatoes are best for eating raw, although all varieties are good.
- Herbs that marry well with tomatoes include basil, oregano, marjoram, pepper, dill weed, thyme, garlic, bay leaf, celery seed, sesame seed, tarragon, chives, and parsley. If you happen to be the unfortunate victim of the wrong end of a skunk, tomato juice will neutralize butyl mercaptan, the prime ingredient in the stinky defensive spray.
