Beet, Dried Cherry, and Red Wine Risotto

The following risotto recipe is from Risotto: 40 Exquisite Classic and Contemporary Risotto Dishes by Clive Tring.

- 5 cups chicken or vegetable stock
- Generous 1-3/8 cups dried sour cherries or dried cranberries
- 1 cup fruity red wine, such as Valpolicella
- 3 TB olive oil
- 1 large red onion finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- Generous 1-5/8 cups risotto rice
- 4 cooked fresh beets, diced
- 2 TB chopped fresh dill
- 2 TB snipped fresh chives
- Salt and Pepper
- Generous 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, to serve (optional)

• Bring the stock to a boil in a pan.  Then reduce the heat and keep simmering gently over low heat while you are cooking the risotto.
• Place the sour cherries in a pan with the wine and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and let simmer for 2-3 minutes until slightly reduced.  Remove from the heat and set aside.
• Heat the olive oil in a large heavy-bottom pan over medium heat.  Add the onion, celery, and thyme and cook, stirring occasionally for 3 minutes, or until just starting to soften.  Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
• Reduce the heat, add the rice and mix to coat in oil.  Cook, stirring constantly, for 2-3 minutes, or until the grains are translucent.
• Gradually add the hot stock, a ladleful at a time.  Stir constantly and add more liquid as the rice absorbs each addition.  Increase the heat to medium so that the liquid bubbles.  Cook for 20 minutes, or until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is creamy.
• Halfway through the risotto cooking time, remove the cherries from the wine with a slotted spoon and add to the risotto with the beet and half the wine.  Continue adding the stock and the remaining wine.
• Stir in the dill and chives and season, if necessary.  Serve with the Parmesan, if you like.

Serves 4 to 6

The result is delicious!  

Because a bottle of Valpolicella couldn't be found (I'll admit, I didn't look too hard), a bottle of Saserello was used to make this risotto.  Additionally, since the recipe doesn't specify a method for cooking the beets -and for goodness sake don't use canned beets!- I took the liberty of sautéing the diced beets in 2 TB of butter, a splash of olive oil, a pinch of salt, and 2 tsp of dried thyme.  Stir to evenly coat, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, just until the beets are easily pierced with a fork.  This took about five minutes.  Once done, remove from the pot and set aside.  Note: The beets were cooked in the same pot that I ultimately cooked the risotto in.  No reason to have all the beety goodness clinging to the pot go to waste.

Also, when it came time to add the wine, I added it all at once.  The cherries were pressed against a strainer to get all the wine out of them as well.  Save those boozy cherries, too!  They were splendid over vanilla ice cream for dessert.