Who says you can’t make risotto on a weeknight? With Ina Garten’s unique method, risotto is a weeknight reality. Here’s how it went for Kim last Tuesday.

Risotto is such a comforting, creamy dish and nice treat for a weeknight. For this, I make the whole recipe as the leftovers hold up really well and make for a great lunch or an easy dinner later in the week.

Since it takes a little while to make but requires very little prep, the first thing I did after walking in the door from work was to preheat the oven. After changing from my work clothes to something a little more suitable for cooking and paying a little attention to our two cats, I was ready to get the chicken stock simmering and measure out the rice.

While the rice and chicken stock were in the oven, I grated the cheese got 1 cup of peas out of the freezer. Towards the last few minutes of the risotto being in the oven, I also got the remaining one-cup of chicken stock simmering. (This was the one cup container I had opened for the swordfish so it was missing one tablespoon. I simply added a tablespoon of water to the stock to bring it up to the full amount.)

When the rice came out of the oven, the chicken stock was fully absorbed and I was ready to add the remaining stock, Parmesan cheese, wine, butter, salt, and pepper and also to stir like crazy! I quickly stirred in the peas and in less than an hour, we had creamy, cheesy risotto.

This is certainly a go to recipe for us, I’m sure it will make an appearance again soon. I’ve tried other successful modifications like adding sautéed shrimp and fennel at the end instead of the peas. I think I’ll try another modification soon by adding some sautéed mushrooms and thyme.