Late Night Eats: Tomato Pesto Risotto.

If you watch Triple D, known as Diners, Drive-ins & Dives to its less affectionate fans, which Food Network somehow conveniently broadcasts late at night (conspiracy I tell you…) you will relate to where I am coming from.

Tonight Guy, as he is oh so easily able to do, foiled my plan to close my kitchen for the evening and enjoy an order of takeout for the first time, in a long time. The vent fan went on, the gas on the Viking radiated heat in my most favorite color blue in the world, and I found myself cooking a hodge podge late night eat.

High class hodge podge of course….

It’s been one of those weeks. You feel lazy because your to-do list still sits with not one item crossed off, but you know that at most times you were actually so busy you forgot to breathe. This week I forgot to go grocery shopping, I didn’t get enough work done that I needed to do, I ate too much butter, and I didn’t get enough sleep. Yet, somehow I made a lot of progress with a couple of my projects. But back track to the forgetting to grocery shop… yea. Some food lover I am.

So tonight, as I sat there staring at Guy take bites big enough for a small army (ha.ha. Guy’s Big Bite?… I get it now) I knew I needed to think of some way to throw together what I had.

A 3/4 of the way full carton of chicken stock
2 unfinished bottles of chardonnay
2 roma tomatoes… that looked half like prunes
1 tupperware of homemade pesto

I always have arborio on hand, so, even though I wanted to break out a cuisinart and try to figure out the secret to the tomato jam on tonight’s episode- I went comfort – Tomato Pesto Risotto

Place the stock in a medium pot over high heat so that it reaches a slow boil. Meanwhile, mince and saute a medium vidalia onion in olive oil and then toss in the chopped plum tomato. As it all combines, take a cup of arborio rice, pour it into the mix to let the grains brown for a few minutes… then ladle portions of the broth and splashes of the chardonnay over the rice until it becomes that beautiful creamy consistency that I love. Finish the dish off by spreading spoonfuls of pesto throughout..

20 minutes of constant cook, some of the best aromas that exist marrying in front of my eyes, and now I sit on the couch, not feeling so jealous of Guy anymore.

p.s. a mug is the best way to enjoy late night eats. spills minimized, super portable. made for tv.

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