I have always been a fan of seafood, living near the sea and not loving it is impossible. But now, after I moved away and breathing our sea air every day is such a rare opportunity, the amount of seafood I eat borders on uncontrolled 🙂 Here’s a recipe for happiness for a sea lover: a lot of seafood and a lot of risotto 🙂
- Prep time: 25 minutes
- Cook time: 25-30 minutes
- Serves: 4-6
- Difficulty: easy
- Course: pasta & risotto
- Cookware: frying pan, copper saucepan, wooden spoon
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 320 g risotto rice
- 600 g fresh mussels in shells
- 160 g zander fillet, or any other lean white fish
- 200 g king prawns
- 3 shallots, finely chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 150 g butter
- 200 ml dry white wine
- 1.2 litre fish stock
- ½ bunch of dill, finely chopped
- olive oil for frying
- freshly ground black pepper
- salt
Cooking method
Step 1
If the mussels are just collected and not cleaned yet for cooking, then remove any gnarls and rip away the ‘beard’ (water plant). Heat olive oil in a frying pan, add mussels and 50ml white wine. Cover and cook for 3-5 minutes, until mussels open. Cut zander fillet into small pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Fry in olive oil until tender. Peel the prawns. Heat olive oil in a frying pan, add 1/3 of the garlic. Fry for 3-5 minutes, adding dill at the end.
Step 2
Put a saucepan with stock on low heat so that it constantly simmers. Melt 100g butter in a separate saucepan over low heat. Add onion and sauté until it is soft and translucent but doesn’t change its colour. Add garlic and stir. Add rice. Stir constantly and fry until the rice becomes transparent.
Step 3
Increase heat to medium. Pour the white wine into a saucepan with rice and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spatula or spoon, until the wine is completely absorbed by the rice. Stir in the stock, ladle by ladle, so that each time it covers the rice completely. Constantly stirring, wait for each addition to absorb before adding the next. Continue cooking the risotto in the same way until the stock is completely absorbed. The rice should be al dente when cooked. Remove risotto from heat, add 50g butter, parmesan and stir vigorously.
Step 4
Put the risotto on plates. Add mussels, fish, shrimp to each plate, and serve risotto immediately.
My tips and tricks:
My friend, the Italian chef Rossario, always says: “Risotto doesn’t wait for a person, but a person waits for a risotto.” Therefore, do not forget to prepare all the necessary ingredients in advance and put them next to the place where you will make risotto, so it will be more convenient for you to cook. Risotto, like a child, cannot be left unattended 🙂 And, by the way, ask your guests to sit down at the table a little bit in advance, so as not to break the Italian rule of “a person waiting for risotto” 🙂
- 320 g risotto rice
- 600 g fresh mussels in shells
- 160 g zander fillet, or any other lean white fish
- 200 g king prawns
- 3 shallots, finely chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 150 g butter
- 200 ml dry white wine
- 1.2 litre fish stock
- ½ bunch of dill, finely chopped
- olive oil for frying
- freshly ground black pepper
- salt
- If the mussels are just collected and not cleaned yet for cooking, then remove any gnarls and rip away the ‘beard’ (water plant). Heat olive oil in a frying pan, add mussels and 50ml white wine. Cover and cook for 3-5 minutes, until mussels open. Cut zander fillet into small pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Fry in olive oil until tender. Peel the prawns. Heat olive oil in a frying pan, add ⅓ of the garlic. Fry for 3-5 minutes, adding dill at the end.
- Put a saucepan with stock on low heat so that it constantly simmers. Melt 100g butter in a separate saucepan over low heat. Add onion and sauté until it is soft and translucent but doesn’t change its colour. Add garlic and stir. Add rice. Stir constantly and fry until the rice becomes transparent.
- Increase heat to medium. Pour the white wine into a saucepan with rice and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spatula or spoon, until the wine is completely absorbed by the rice. Stir in the stock, ladle by ladle, so that each time it covers the rice completely. Constantly stirring, wait for each addition to absorb before adding the next. Continue cooking the risotto in the same way until the stock is completely absorbed. The rice should be al dente when cooked. Remove risotto from heat, add 50g butter, parmesan and stir vigorously.
- Put the risotto on plates. Add mussels, fish, shrimp to each plate, and serve risotto immediately.