duck-shaped pain

Roasted Garlic, Spinach and Bell Pepper Risotto [1]

Serves 4, or 5 as a side dish. Or two very hungry people as a main meal. Or even just yourself, leaving some over for lunch or risotto cakes later. [2]

All measurements are approximate, as I never really measure anything. All times reflect the fact that I am at 4,800 feet. Your times may vary. Just do what the rice tells you to do.

• 2 heads of garlic

• Olive oil

• Salt

• Water

• 1 bunch spinach leaves, washed and chopped into small pieces, roughly 1 inch square

• 1 cup finely chopped shallots (onions are acceptable)

• 1 large red bell pepper, seeds removed, chopped into small pieces

• 2 tablespoons butter

• 2 cups Arborio rice [3]

• 1/2 to 1 cup dry-ish white wine (the amount here will vary depending on how much of the wine's flavor you want in the finished dish. Do not use cooking wine, even if you are underage. Bribe someone into getting you decent wine if you have to. I used a fairly dry Gew�rztraminer for tonight's dish, and it turned out respectable.)

• 8-9 cups warm broth (either chicken or vegetable is fine. Always have more ready than you think you'll need.)

• 1/2 cup half and half (or cream, if you're feeling lucky) [4]

• 3/4 cup (or more) freshly grated Parmesan cheese (it is utterly worth it to get your hands on some real Parmigiano-Reggiano for this dish, even if you have to lie, cheat, steal or dip into your savings to get some.)

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Slice the tops off of the heads of garlic, exposing the cloves. Place the heads in a garlic roaster or other small baking dish. Pour olive oil over the heads, coating them and covering the bottom of the dish with a thin layer of oil. Sprinkle a light layer of salt over the garlic. Cover the dish or garlic roaster and place in oven. Cook 35 to 45 minutes or until garlic is very soft and makes the entire house smell like warm garlic.

While garlic is roasting, boil about 2 quarts of salted water on the stove. Add the spinach to the water and boil for about 1 to 2 minutes. Dump the spinach into a colander and run cold water over it to stop the cooking process. Press the spinach with a towel or with your hands to squeeze the water out. Pretend you hate it and you want it to die. Squeeze it until you can squeeze no more. Notice that what was once a big bunch of spinach is now a tiny lump of wet green leaves. But that lump is enough for the purpose at hand. Place in a bowl, cover, and set aside.

Remove the garlic from the oven. Take the steaming heads from their dish and let cool for a few minutes. To remove the soft pulp, squeeze each head with your hands until soft cloves start to pop out. You might have to coax them out with a fork or a toothpick, but make sure that all the cloves are accounted for. If any are too dark or completely burnt, discard them. Roughly chop the roasted pulp. If you have a mortar and pestle handy, use it to smash the pulp into a paste. If you have no such implement, place the pulp into a small bowl and smack it around with a fork for a bit until it is subdued.

Pour the broth into a large pot, and heat until warm. Reduce the heat just enough to keep it at a warm temperature throughout the entire cooking process. This is the liquid that you are going to ladle into the rice mixture, bit by bit. Be sure to keep it somewhere easily accessible to you -- I usually keep it on the burner directly behind the burner I am cooking the rice on, because that way it doesn't have far to travel.

Get all the other ingredients handy. Once you start cooking the rice, it needs to be constantly attended to., and you can't go wandering off to the refrigerator for something you forgot.

Heat the butter in a wide skillet or saut� pan (non-stick is really the best option for this dish) over medium-high heat. Watch it melt and bubble. Try not to get too wrapped up in what it's doing, or it will burn. Add the shallots or onions, and saut� for about 4 or 5 minutes. Add the roasted garlic paste and stir until it is broken up. Add the diced bell peppers, and cook until they are heated through.

Add the rice to the pan. Immediately stir it, so that each grain gets coated with butter. Continue stirring for about two minutes, letting the rice brown slightly.

Now pour the wine into the pan. Continue to stir the rice until the wine has been almost completely absorbed. Now add a spoonful or ladleful of broth to the rice. You should add it in about 1/2 cup increments, depending on the utensil you use. As soon as you add each portion of broth, stir the rice around gently to distribute the liquid evenly. As the broth gets absorbed, stir the rice more, always keeping it moving. This keeps it from sticking to the pan. However, never wait until all the liquid is completely absorbed to add the next ladleful -- it could burn if you do that. Add it when there's just a small bit of liquid left.

Once you start cooking the rice, you are really no longer in charge. The rice will let you know what to do. If you watch it and listen to it carefully, it will let you know when it needs more liquid and finally, when it is done. Do not pay attention to anything but the rice. You and it are one at this point, and neither of you can bail out now. Concentrate on how it smells, how creamy the whole mess is getting and think about the treat that awaits you when it's done. You really have to excited about and involved with the risotto for it to turn out properly.

At first, the rice will absorb the broth readily, but as time progresses, it will seem to do so more slowly. Stirring it rapidly will speed up the absorption process, but that's about all you can do.

About 15 minutes after you put the rice in the pan, test it. It should be slightly tender at this point, but not quite done. Take the parboiled spinach and stir it into the rice. Keep testing the rice fairly frequently in the next few minutes. When done, the rice will be firm yet chewy, like pasta is when it is properly cooked. It will reach this stage at about 20 to 25 minutes after you first put it in the pan.

When the rice shows its first signs of doneness and does not seem to be absorbing any more liquid, pour in the half-and-half or cream. Stir rapidly until it is either absorbed or is coating the rice. At this point, the rice should be done. Add the Parmesan cheese and cook just long enough to melt it.

Serve immediately, to properly grateful friends and relations. Drink lots of wine with it. Light some candles, maybe. It's good with fish, but is excellent with roast chicken. Hopefully, there will be extra, enough for several decadent lunches to come.

[1] The skill involved in thinking this up is minimal at best, since once you've figured out the basic risotto technique, you can make it over and over again, ad infinitum, with many different ingredients.

[2] Risotto cakes: take a lump of leftover risotto, shape it into a patty. Fry it lightly in a buttered skillet until warm. Good with eggs or saut�ed greens.

[3] Once in a while you might hear that any old short grain rice out there is acceptable for risotto, but this is not true. These people are lying to you. If you want to make less risotto or more, I find that 4 cups of broth are needed for 1 cup of rice, 6 cups for 1 1/2 cups of rice, and so on. It's always good to have extra broth on hand, though, because the amount always varies depending on the heat of the stove, age of the rice, alignment of the planets, and so on.

[4] Don't even think about cutting down on the butter, cream and cheese here. You can use olive oil instead of butter, but it won't be as good. Stop drinking soda for a couple of days or cut down elsewhere for awhile -- just don't rob your risotto of its creamy goodness.

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