Name: Langoustine Risotto
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: United Kingdom
Ingredients: a good pinch of saffron threads; 125 ml dry vermouth, such as Noilly Pratt; 1 tablespoon olive oil; 25 g butter; extra virgin olive oil, to finish; a handful of finely chopped fresh chives, to finish; 50 g butter, cut into cubes and chilled; 200 g risotto rice; 2 garlic cloves; 1 small onion; 2 small celery sticks; 12 raw Scottish langoustines, defrosted if frozen; 1 teaspoon flaked sea salt; 3 black peppercorns; all the shells, heads and claws of the langoustines; 2 level tablespoons tomato purèe; 2 litres water

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

What to Eat Now (Spring & Summer)

By Valentine Warner

Published 2009

About

In my teens I frequented a restaurant called the Teatro di Pompeii on the Piazza Paradiso in Rome. Lino, the proprietor, was a most charming man, although he would not divulge the complete recipe to his techno-pink shrimp risotto. Its lurid colour was extraordinary and the taste pure essence of shrimp. Overallitremains a vivid memory.

I’m frustrated that in the UK it is next to impossible to buy uncooked Atlantic prawns, so I have replaced them with langoustines. As a result, this r