To make enough for 2-3 people you'll need:
3 heads of garlic
olive oil
1 white onion, 1 red onion
4 cups of a nice vegetable stock
1 1/2 cups of wine (this is how much wine is in one of those small bottles)
1 3/4 cups of arborio rice
2 cans of your favourite bean, butter beans would be nice, or mixed beans.
Oh garlic, so delicious. To prepare it for roasting, just peel off most of the papery outer skin, then turn it onto it's side and slice off the very top of all of the cloves.
Do that with all three heads, then put them into a baking tray and pour some olive oil over the top.
Cover the tray with foil and bake at gas mark 5/190C/375F for 20ish minutes, until it's browned and squishy.
Take them out of the oven and leave them to cool for a few minutes. Once they're cool enough to handle, gently prise off the cloves and squeeze them from the bottom. The roasted goodness should pop out. Try one, it's so delicious. Empty out all the garlic into a bowl.
Put to one side while you make the risotto. Pour the stock into a pan and heat it up to near boiling point, then leave it at that heat.
Warm up the olive oil in a big deep pan and fry the onions for at least 10 minutes on a low to medium heat until they're super soft and gooey.
Once they're soft, pour in the rice and stir it around for a minute or so, you'll see the edges of the grains become slightly translucent. Once that happens add the wine and turn the heat up to a medium/high setting.
Keep stirring until all the wine has dissolved, then add the stock, a cup at a time. You'll know when it's time to add another cup of stock because it'll behave like this when you drag a wooden spoon through it:
When you've got about 1 cup of stock left, add your drained beans and keep stirring. Keep on adding the stock until it's all been absorbed and the rice is cooked. Turn the heat right down and mash the roasted garlic with a fork. The flavour is super mild so you don't want to add it until the last minute. Stir it in for a minute or so before serving.
Enjoy your book.
