Risotto & scallops: creating a new Christmas tradition

What if I ask you how you imagine a typical Italian Christmas? I bet that you will think at a room full of people, different generations sitting around a table full of every sort of food, bottles of good wine, children that run around and women in the kitchen. And over all, an heavenly smell of food and the noise of a happy chatter. If this is what your mind suggested to you, you won! That is a reality in the biggest part of the Italian families and was also the way I used to spend all the Christmas that I’m able to remember. My heart is full of memories of a young version of my mother in the kitchen (days before Christmas!) with my aunts, a table that seemed always too short for all that people, such an incredible amount of food that even after years I don’t know how we survived… and then the hours spent playing bingo and all the plays we did only at Christmas. But this Christmas we had a completely different day. We didn’t come back in Italy and spent the holidays in Switzerland so, for the very first time, around the table there were only 3 people: my husband, our one year old daughter and me!  Even if it has been a very different Christmas, I can tell you that it was really special. I didn’t spent days in the kitchen cooking mountains of food, instead I decided to choose few particular dishes and make a menu to remember. This risotto with scallops is of course part of that menu, we really enjoyed it, hope you will too! Buon appetito!

Ingredients: (serves 4)

- 320 g of rice (11 3/4 oz)

- 8 scallops

- 1/2 l of vegetable broth

- 60 g of butter (2 oz)

- 1 shallot finely chopped

- half a glass of white wine

- 1 sachet of saffron

- thyme, salt and pepper

Put 30 g (1 oz) of butter in a pan and fry lightly the shallot. And the rice and stir 2 minutes, blend with wine. Add the broth a little bit at a time and cook your risotto. 5 minutes before it’s ready add few leaves of thyme and the saffron. Meanwhile prepare the scallops: put a non stick pan on medium flame, add 30 g of butter and when it’s melted add the scallop sprinkled with salt and pepper. Cook 2 minutes per side. Now you are ready to serve: put the rice in a dish, add the scallops and season with the scallops gravy.