Risotto...

I decided to pass up noodles for once, and make some risotto with all of the eautiful vegetables in this week's CSA. I used all but three scapes to add to the amount of garlic scape pesto I made last week, and the rest were steeped in vegetable broth before I added the broth to the risotto.
I made the broth by combining: 12 cups of cold water, several (broken and cleaned) stalks of celery, the tops of the CSA carrots, several non-CSA carrots (again, cleaned and broken), one peeled medium yellow onion (diced), several cloves of garlic (smashed), pepper corns, bay leaves, herbs, and vegetable boullion equal to four cups of stock to give it a bit of a kick-start. After simmering this on low for 2-3 hours, I strained it, smashed the juice out of the cooked vegetables, and added the garlic scapes (diced into 3/4" pieces) to let soften as I kept the stock warm. I think in total, I got about 10-11 cups of stock out of everything.

In a separate pan, I sauteed (in some olive oil and butter) the diced carrots, one 10-ounce pack of sliced mushrooms (broken roughly), the stems of the chard (cleaned and washed), and one bell pepper (I used some green and red pepper), seasoning with salt and pepper as I went.
To start the risotto, I again melted some butter in some olive oil and sauteed one medium yellow onion (diced fine) with some minced garlic cloves and some red pepper flakes. After they softened up, I added two cups of arborio rice and sauteed until they became translucent around the edges. I then added a good shot or two of dry Vermouth (a great cooking wine - dry, affordable, and never goes bad), and then started adding in the broth, two or three ladles at a time (including the scapes as I went). When the pan would start to become dry, I'd add some more broth, stirring constantly. I think I used all of the broth, plus maybe one or two more cups of water at the end.

When I started to get towards the end of the broth and the rice was al dente (maybe 3-4 cups to go), I added in all of the vegetables and the leaves from the head of chard (washed and cut into strips). At the very end, I added in a half cup of cream, some grated Parmigiano, and adjusted the salt and pepper.

In addition to the risotto, I made a gremolata out of the parsley and chives we got in week three. Gremolata is a condiment that is traditionally served with osso buco and generally consists of garlic, parsley, and lemon zest (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gremolata). Mine kept with that in spirit, but I added in a bunch of chives to the finely diced parsley, the zest of one lemon, half of that lemon's juice, two cloves of minced garlic, olive oil (1/3 cup or so), and some salt. I really think it would make a nice, light topping for some chicken or fish, but I also would like to try spooning a bit of it into the hot risotto. It would probably lighten it up considerably.