I must admit asparagus is my favourite vegetable, and by happy coincidence I live in  Worcestershire which is the epicentre of the British asparagus. I could not let the asparagus season finish without posting a quick and tasty recipe.

The UK asparagus season runs from April 23rd (St George’sDay) until the 21st June and I am lucky enough to be within a short drive to several farms that sell amazing asparagus. Since 2006, this king of vegetables has had it’s own festival in the Vale of Evesham.

I made this risotto completely vegetarian for my online cooking class but you could use chicken stock and parmesan cheese if you’d prefer.

Risotto Ingredients (Serves 4)
300 grams arborio rice
85 grams white onion finely diced
*1200 ml vegetable stock
350 grams fresh asparagus
45 grams unsalted butter
125 ml dry white wine
75g vegetarian Italian hard cheese grated
85 grams sundried tomato halves
5 grams finely chopped fresh fennel leaves (optional)
Pea shoots (optional)
1 Tbsp olive oil
Optional extra Italian cheese curls to decorate

1. Wash the asparagus and trim the spears so they are all the same length. Put the trimmings into the vegetable stock and bring to a simmer and reserve.
2. Blanch the trimmed asparagus spears in a large pot of in boiling salted water for 2-3 minutes, then cool quickly in cold water and drain.
3. Take the best 8 spears and cut the top 8-9 cm and reserve for decoration.
4. Now take all of the rest of the asparagus and cut into 2.5cm pieces and reserve.
5. Cut the sundried tomato halves lengthwise into 2 and reserve.
6. Heat the butter in heavy bottomed saucepan on a medium heat and add the finely diced onion. Cook until translucent but not coloured, stirring from time to time.
7. Add the arborio rice and stir well to coat all the rice with the butter.
8. Add the white wine and cook until the white has been absorbed into the rice.
9. Now begin to add the hot vegetarian stock one ladle at a time. Make sure the stock has been absorbed before adding another ladle and so on.
10. Use 1100ml of the stock in the making of the risotto (keep back 100ml in reserve*).
11. The cooking process usually takes about 20-25 minutes once you add the rice. The risotto should be “al dente” still have a slight bite to it once you have achieved that, remove from the heat.
12. Stir in the sundried tomatoes, then the 2.5cm pieces of asparagus and then the cheese.
13. Season with sea salt and black pepper, then add the chopped fennel herb and stir in the olive oil.

To serve

Heat the reserved asparagus spears in the microwave or in boiling water for 1 minute. Spoon the risotto into 4 warm pasta bowls and stir in a few pea shoots.   Shave a few cheese curls onto the top of each bowl and decorate with 2 asparagus spears on each portion.

Chef’s Tips

How much stock you use when making risotto using 300 grams of Arborio Rice can depend on factors such as the vegetable or meat ingredients you use, but it is never a bad thing to end up with a small amount of stock left over.  This can be added to reheat leftovers if you have any.

A big shout out for Steelite who kindly sent me the wonderful Ink Crackle Tableware I am using for this dish.

Asparagus and Sundried Tomato Risotto©KevinAshton2023