Creamy Tomato & Mozzarella Risotto with Fresh Basil is the best risotto I have ever tasted. As its name suggests, it is a combination of three delicious ingredients such as Roma tomatoes, Mozzarella di Bufala, and fresh basil that makes this creamy yummy dish. From my experience, Mozzarella di Bufala plays a key role in this risotto, so make sure you use that one and no other nor any mozzarella substitution.
I need to mention that this recipe is not really mine, but it is from HelloFresh Belgium*. Normally, I don’t like to share recipes that don’t have any added value here on my blog, but I needed to make an exception as this Creamy Tomato & Mozzarella Risotto with Fresh Basil is just too delicious to keep it for myself! 😉
I have to say I was not really in for buying a box with ingredients and recipes selected from a limited scope for each week, but after few trials, I was nicely surprised. What I love about HelloFresh is that they have a good selection of vegetarian meals and sometimes we can discover new and yummy flavor combinations. Their meals are delicious and very easy to make, usually taking up to 30-45 minutes which is great if you don’t want to spend the whole evening doing groceries and cooking after a long day at work. This is also the case of this Creamy Tomato & Mozzarella Risotto which will take you max. 40 minutes of preparation.
Here you have the recipe and if you make it, don’t forget to tell me how did it turn out and how did you like it via the below comments! I am impatient to receive any kind of feedback or reply to your questions.
- 800 ml vegetable stock
- 6 branches fresh basil
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 4 stalks celery
- 1 tbsp. butter
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 200 ml white wine
- 300 g risotto rice
- 4 Roma tomatoes
- 125 g Mozzarella di Bufala
- 40 g Pecorino
- salt and pepper to taste
- Bring the vegetable broth to a simmer in a medium saucepan (do not boil). Cut the leafs of the basil and add the branches to the broth. Set aside and keep warm.
- Peel the onion and garlic, clean the celery stalks. Chop all three finely. In a large saucepan, heat the butter over medium-high heat and add chopped onion, garlic, and celery stalks. Fry shortly, then add 2 tbsp. olive oil and 1 tbsp. water. Lower the heat and sauté for about 5 minutes or until tender. In the meantime, cut the Roma tomatoes into small cubes and set aside.
- Take the basil branches out of the vegetable broth and add white wine. Add rice into the onion, garlic and celery mix and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Then stir in one scoop of the vegetable broth, leaving the risotto to absorb nearly all the liquid. Once there is almost no more liquid, add another scoop and repeat the process, stirring constantly, until you use 2/3 of the vegetable broth.
- Reduce the heat to medium. Add the tomato cubes into the remaining broth and repeat the process until all liquid is absorbed, stirring constantly. It shall take about 20 minutes and the risotto should be creamy, but not overcooked. If it still hasn’t reached this consistency, add some more boiling water.
- When the risotto is ready, remove the saucepan from the heat. Cut the mozzarella di bufala into small cubes and stir it in. Chop the basil and grate finely the Pecorino (if needed). Stir in half of both chopped basil and grated Pecorino. Season with salt and pepper (to taste), cover for 2 minutes so that the cheese melts.
- Serve the risotto sprinkled with the remaining basil and Pecorino. Enjoy!
*for those who don’t know this concept, HelloFresh prepares weekly recipes out of which you can choose a number of weekly meals in quantities based on a number of people in your house. Once per week, you receive a box with fresh ingredients for the recipes you choose and you can start cooking your delicious meals!