(Traditional recipe - Risotto with vegetables, Latium-style)

450 g (1 lb) rice for risotto (arborio)
200 g (7 oz) fresh asparagus, sliced
2 zucchini (courgettes), cubed
200 g (7 oz) fresh beans, shelled
200 g (7 oz) fresh peas, shelled
400 g (14 oz) fresh ripe tomatoes
1 onion, finely chopped
4 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
1,5 l (50 fl oz - 6 1/4 C) vegetable stock
55 g (2 oz) unsalted butter
Salt Freshly grated
Parmesan cheese, if you like
Pepper, if you like

Time:
preparation: 30 minutes
cooking: 40 minutes
Difficulty:
medium
Nutrition Facts (amount per serving):
Calories: XX (kCal) - XX (kJ)
Protein: XX (g)
Total fat: XX (g)
Total carbohydrate: XX (g)
Sugars: XX (g)

Vegatarian first course rich of fresh products. Boil tomatoes for 1 minutes for peeling easily.
Remove seeds and cube them. Prepare all the other vegetables. Fry lightly onion with butter in a saucepan and then add beans, peas, courgettes (zucchini), asparagus and diced tomatoes.
Flavor all these vegetables for some minutes and then pour into the mixture a glass of warm water; season to taste with salt and pepper (if you like) and cook, half-covered, over a medium heat, for 20 minutes. Meanwhile prepare vegetable stock and add it together with rice to vegetables.
Cook for other 15 minutes, half-covered, stirring now and then with a wooden spoon. Add other stock only if necessary.
While rice is cooking, clean, wash and chop parsley.
Sprinkle over risotto a minute before the end of cooking; stir very well and let cooking juice retire. Serve hot with grated Parmesan; every guest sprinkles it over his risotto according to his taste.

Note

- You can substitute butter with 12 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil.
- You can cook all the vegetables without frying lightly onion.
- You can use frozen beans, peas, zucchini, asparagus and even chopped parsley, if you have no time to clean, wash and chop all these vegetables.
- You can used canned chopped tomatoes (200 g - 7 oz) instead of fresh ripe ones.
- We suggest to add 2 teaspoons dried bay leaves and 2 tablespoons dried chives to ingredients; if you don't like onion, you can substitute it with some tablespoons of chives.