Bacon, Lettuce and Pea (BLP) Risotto

Bacon lettuce and pea (BLP) risotto

After fretting and straining to think of a recipe to enter into the Student’s Can Cook bloggers for students competition a few months ago, I found that as the final deadline approached I actually I two ideas.  The first, a recipe for Five Bean Chilli, can be found here, the second is this; BLP (Bacon Lettuce and Pea) Risotto.

I love risotto for a multitude of reasons.  I love eating it, all comfort and warmth with its unctuous, buttery, flavoured carbs; as horribly twee and clichéd as it sounds it does feel like a meal that someone has loved and cared for, which if cooked right they have, continually stirring and adding the stock until the rice is just ready, gooey whilst retaining that little al dente  bite.  I love cooking it for the seemingly endless flavour combinations you can add to the basic recipe through a change in the stock, herbs, poached fish, smoked fish, roasted meat, slow cooked ragu, and roasted or steamed vegetables.  I love basic recipes like that, things like quiche, frittata or soup where you can just look at what you’ve got left in the fridge and go with it.  Leftover roasted chicken? Roasted chicken risotto.  Smoked salmon or smoked mackerel? Pop them in a risotto.  Tomatoes looking a bit wrinkly and past their best?  Slow roast them and stir them in for a roast tomato risotto.