Risotto with Pancetta and Caprese Salad

It seems that the last few days I am just very busy. They are the lasts days before finally next week I will start working, so there are many things I want to do and I hardly have time to test new recipes. Well finally sunday I made some time to prepare a new risotto. I had some stuff in house that we need to use or soon we would have to through away, so I made up my own risotto recipe ;-)

The ingredients you need for 3 persons:

• 100 gr. pancetta in small pieces
• 4 cloves garlic (if you prefer you can use less, but we just love garlic)
• 250 gr. risotto rice
• 150 gr. frozen green peas 
• About 1 liter stock (bouillon) 
• Half glass white wine of good quality
• Grated pecorino or parmesan (I use pecorino in this case)
• Basil (dry or fresh, it depends in what you have at home)

In a pan heat some olive oil and bake the pancetta until golden, add then the garlic, bake another couple of minutes and then scoop the risotto rice. Mix all well for a minute before you add the white wine. After that is question of adding the stock slowly spoon by spoon. After about 15 minutes of doing this add the green peas, to cook with the risotto for another 10 to 15 minutes until ready. Add the grated pecorino or parmesan and some basil, mix all well, the risotto will be nice and creamy.

You can serve the risotto with some ciabatta bread or with a salad. I had some mozzarella di buffala in the refrigerator and it was getting old so I made a caprese salad, easy and always good. Just cut some tomatoes in slices, sprinkle with extra verge olive oil, sea salt, pepper and basil, then put on top the slices mozzarella, sprinkle again with some olive oil and basil. So delicious!