I’m being an optimist.  Officially it’s 19 days til spring and my fingers are crossed that spring will arrive.  It’s turning out to be a lovely day today with barely a cloud in the sky.  This afternoon snow should be wandering through for the next few days again.

The kids have enjoyed their downtime this past week being off from school and it’s been relatively quiet which is nice.  We’re not those parents that schedule their kids within an inch of their lives but it is nice to have a break in routine.

There was a request for risotto as we haven’t had that recently so I decided to switch it up a bit.  We had some asparagus that needed to be used up and I thought pancetta would be a great pairing.

For risotto I always prepare the ingredients before I start cooking to keep it easy.  I sliced up half a red onion, chopped 4-5 cloves of garlic, and cut up the asparagus.  While I am doing this I heat up the stock for the risotto.  The ratio I used is 5 cups to about 1 1/4 cup of risotto.

In a large pan melt a couple of tablespoons of butter and saute the onions until softened.  Then add the garlic and chopped up pancetta.  I found this pancetta at the co-op that was uncured and thinly sliced.  I think next time I will get thicker sliced pancetta because while this was tasty the flavour wasn’t as bold as I was hoping for.

After a couple of minutes add the risotto.  Stir well then add about a third of a cup of white balsamic vinegar.

Gradually add the heated stock stirring well.  As the liquid is absorbed add more.

While this is simmering I grated parmesan, asiago, and fontina cheese until I had just over a cup.  In the last five minutes of cooking or so add the cheese.

In the last few minutes add the asparagus.  You still want it bright and crunchy.  Nothing worse than overdone asparagus.  Also the risotto should be on the slightly al dente side.  Not crunchy but firm.

With the three cheeses this was really creamy.  And it is hard to go wrong with a bit of bacon.  And the plates were cleared quickly so that is always a good sign. 🙂

I may have asked this question already so if I did I apologise but with new tablets out now I was wondering for those who use their tablets to blog, what do they use?  I need one that I can easily transfer pictures from my camera to the tablet then put watermarks on.  I think the big sticking point is getting the pictures from the camera to the tablet so I can blog on the go.  Thank you for any advice!