Roasted and Smokey and Just Plain Good

It’s time for La Festa Al Fresco! This annual event is co-hosted by Lis of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice, who ask that everyone make a dish made with fresh, seasonal ingredients to share with the world. Usually at this time of year my garden is overrun with tomatoes of all shapes and sizes, the vines are usually weighted down to the ground, but this year I’ve got nothing. Luckily, I’m pet sitting for friends of ours who have a large garden as well and theirs has something that mine does not: tomatoes. Lots of them. They’ll never even notice the few baskets full that went missing… And if they do, the conversation will go something like this:

>>Bri, what happened to all our tomatoes?

>>>Ummm, the dog really seems to have taken a liking to them and those crazy cats were batting a few around. Oh, and I saw your neighbours slinking away from the garden as I pulled in one day… I’d definitely suspect the neighbours. Or it could also be that tomato grub, haven’t you heard? It’s been all over the news, apparently there’s a tomato eating grub that’s sweeping the province, sounds like they’re killer for home gardens.

>>Just bring us some leftovers of whatever you’ve made with our tomatoes.

>>>No problem.

So what did I make with the tomatoes? Among other things, this smoked tomato risotto. I smoked the tomatoes myself with the help of my beautiful smoker by simply drizzling them in olive oil, salt and pepper and letting the smoke do the work. And they pack quite a punch. On their own, they’re almost overpowering, but when you mix them into creamy risotto, the flavours blend perfectly. The risotto was made in typical risotto fashion, (seriously, once you’ve made one risotto, you can make a hundred) the only difference was that I also added some oyster, shiitake and maitake mushrooms, (courtesy of my mushroom growing friend) and instead of using only white wine and chicken stock, I added some milk to make it extra creamy. I didn’t follow a recipe and you don’t need to either. But if you’d like some extra tips and direction, go check out Meeta’s post on Risotto with Creamy Red Pepper, she does a fabulous job of explaining how these things work.

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Risotto + Tomato + Mushroom