Creamy Roasted Cherry Tomato Risotto

Something magical happens when you roast cherry tomatoes. They blister, sweeten, some of them burst, but the end result is always a tray full of bite sized flavour sensations. Add these on top of a creamy, luxurious simple risotto, and top with some fragrantly fresh basil, you have the perfect comforting summertime Italian combination.

Prep Time5

Cook Time30

Total Time35

Course: Dinner, Lunch, Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: basil, cherry tomato, italian, One Pot, rice, Risotto, Tomato

Servings:

Calories: 918kcal

Ingredients

400 g cherry tomatoes
3 garlic cloves finely grated/crushed
3 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp sea salt
black pepper
1 medium onion
1 stick of celery
250 g arborio rice
125 ml white wine
700 ml hot vegetable (or chicken) stock
25 g parmesan plus extra to serve
25 g mascarpone or creme fraiche
1 small handful of fresh basil to serve

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
On a large baking tray, scatter in the cherry tomatoes and sprinkle over 2 of the grated garlic cloves, add in some seasoning, and finally toss everything in 1 tbsp of the olive oil.
Roast in the oven for 30 minutes.
Finely dice the onion and the celery and add to a wide shallow pan along with the remaining 1 tbsp of the oil. Place over a medium heat and gently fry until soften for around 5 minutes. Add in the remaining clove of garlic.
Place your hot stock in a saucepan, keep it simmering, and have close to hand.
Stir through the risotto rice into the vegetable mix, I have used arborio for this recipe, until the grains of rice are coated in the oil and turning slightly translucent at the edges.
Turn up the heat to medium-high, pour in the glass of white wine, and allow it to reduce and be absorbed into the rice whilst stirring. Reduce the heat back down to medium.
You should now add the simmering stock to the dish one ladle at a time, stirring slowly and constantly. Keep doing this until all the stock is used up. The process should take around 25 minutes, but it’s not a science. The key here is not to rush it but to take time to allow the grains to slowly absorb the flavours in the liquid and in turn release the starch in the grains. Risotto is a well earned labour of love!
After 30 minutes in the oven, remove the roasted cherry tomatoes and set aside.
Once the risotto has absorbed the stock, gently stir in the finely grated parmesan cheese and the mascarpone or creme fraiche, and half of the juices from the tomato pan.
Put around a third of the tomatoes to one side of the pan and lightly squish with a fork. Add the crushed portion of the tomatoes to the risotto dish, keeping the mostly whole tomatoes in reserve. Season the risotto with some freshly ground black pepper (I think there is already enough saltiness from the cheese, but this is up to your taste).
To serve, spoon the risotto into 2 bowls, top with the remaining roasted cherry tomatoes, pouring over any remaining cooking juices from the tomato pan, and then sprinkle on the fresh basil leaves.
Serve alongside some extra grated parmesan cheese if you wish.

Notes

You can also roast the cherry tomatoes in an airfryer at 180° C for around 20 minutes, removing the drawer as you want to cook the tomatoes in their juices.
Risotto can be an excuse to open a bottle of wine, or you can always freeze a leftover glass from a bottle that wasn’t quite finished as it freezes very well.
I have used Arborio rice in this recipe, however there are other risotto rice option – it’s a whole family of short-grain, high starch varieties. The most popular ones found in supermarkets being: Arborio and Carnaroli.
You can choose to make this non-vegetarian if you wish with chicken stock (especially homemade which will bring more depth of flavour). Click here for my homemade chicken stock recipe.

Nutrition