Pasta and Rice

As with most families throughout Britain, we eat pasta or rice-based main courses several times a week. These dishes can be everyday ones for family eating, such as the straightforward Mushroom Risotto, or they can be ‘dressed up’ for informal entertaining. The simple risotto can be transformed into such a dish by adding a mixture of wild mushrooms, dried when the natural product is out of season or otherwise unobtainable (we are lucky to have woods beside our house so full of a variety of wild mushrooms, chanterelles in particular, that you positively trip over them), fresh asparagus and saffron.