A couple of months ago I received an approach from Suma, a vegetarian wholefoods cooperative based in Yorkshire, who asked if I would be willing to create recipes for their bi-monthly catalogue.
Suma runs on strong ethical principles, specialising in fairly traded, organic and natural products, and as a workers’ cooperative to boot they pretty much tick all the right boxes for me, so I was delighted to accept their proposal.
This, then, is the first of a series of bimonthly recipes I will be creating and publishing in association with Suma.
As part of our arrangement, this recipe has used some products supplied by Suma, the choice of which has been entirely my own.
However, a key principle underpinning the recipes that I publish on this blog has always been that they must include at least one seasonal ingredient that I have grown myself, that has been given to me by another grower or that I have foraged.
When I first planned this recipe, based around a combination of flavours and textures designed to provide a big “wow factor”, I had rather optimistically worked on the assumption that by now I would be harvesting the first of the summer cauliflowers from my allotment plot, the Circus Garden.
Unfortunately, although I can see some creamy curds appearing on my cauliflower plants they are still a little way off being ready, so the cauliflower I’ve used for this dish has come from a local organic supplier. Nevertheless, the usually dependable Circus Garden is the source of the Carcassonne garlic and the lemon thyme that I have used in this recipe, so despite the disappointment of the cauliflower I can still say that I have managed to keep to that core principle.
roasted cauliflower and thyme risotto with lemon pangritata
1 cauliflower, cut into small florets
300 g arborio or similar risotto rice
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tbsp fresh thyme or lemon thyme
1/2 tsp sea salt
glass white wine
1.2 litres vegetable stock
20 g organic butter
30 g vegetarian Parmesan (I used Mangiagratta)
juice of 1 lemon (use the zest for the pangritata, below)
for the pangritata
30 g fresh ciabatta breadcrumbs
zest of 1 lemon
1/2 tbsp fresh thyme or lemon thyme
25 g butter
to finish
a few fresh thyme leaves, chopped
thyme flowers
Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 170°C (325°F, gas mark 3).
2. Place the cauliflower florets in a baking tray and pour on one tablespoon of the olive oil. Mix to combine, ensuring all of the cauliflower florets are coated in oil. Put the tray in the pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the florets are browned. Remove from the oven and drain the florets on kitchen paper.
3. While the cauliflower florets are roasting, make the pangritata. Heat the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat. As soon as it starts to bubble, add the breadcrumbs. Stir to ensure all the breadcrumbs are in contact with the butter. Continue to stir until the breadcrumbs are light golden brown and crisp, which should take no more than 2 minutes. Immediately remove from the heat, stir in the lemon and chopped thyme and the tip the pangritata onto kitchen paper to drain. Set to one side.
4. Now for the risotto. Bring the stock to a boil then reduce to a low simmer. Put the remaining tablespoon of olive oil into a large pan over a medium flame. When hot, add the chopped onion and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until the onion is soft and translucent. Add the garlic, stir and cook for a further minute before adding the rice. Stir to ensure all the grains of rice have contact with the oil.
5. Now turn up the heat and pour in the wine, stirring to deglaze. Add the sea salt and a ladle of stock and then reduce the heat back to medium. Keep stirring, adding a ladleful of stock whenever the rice starts to look dry. Continue to cook, adding stock a ladleful at a time in this way, until the rice is “al dente”. You may not need to use all of the stock to reach this stage.
6. As soon as the rice is cooked, which will take around 20-25 minutes, add the lemon juice, thyme, roast cauliflower, butter and Parmesan, stirring quickly to combine into the risotto, then remove from the heat. Divide the risotto between plates or bowls. Scatter over some of the lemon pangritata and a pinch of the chopped thyme leaves and thyme flowers.