Risotto is so tasty, hearty, and versatile; I can’t believe I haven’t done a risotto recipe on here yet! For this version, I knew I wanted to do risotto, but I didn’t know what I wanted to put in it. So I did what I usually do – I went to Haymarket (my local “farmers”/produce market), looked around, and saw what struck my fancy. This time, what hit me in the face was the number of fresh figs everywhere! It turns out it’s fig season, and even though I’ve never had fig risotto, I knew figs go great with cheese, which is also often in risotto, so I thought I’d give it a try. To go with the roasted figs I chose another roasted vegetable, then added spices, sherry, and almonds on the recommendation of my Flavor Bible.

Fig and Sweet Potato Risotto
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• 1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into ¼ inch dice
• 1 pound fresh mission figs, stems removed and quartered
• 5 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 2 tsp kosher salt, divided
• ¼ tsp ground black pepper
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 star anise
• 1 cinnamon stick
• ½ cup chopped sweet onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup arborio rice
• ½ cup sherry
• ½ cup blanched slivered almonds
• 1 Tbsp minced thyme
• ½ cup grated parmesan
• ¼ cup crumbled ricotta salata

1. Preheat the oven to 400ºF
2. Toss the sweet potatoes with 2 Tbsp oil, 1 tsp salt, and ¼ tsp pepper
3. Separately, toss the figs with 1 Tbsp oil, ½ tsp salt
4. Distribute figs and sweet potatoes on baking sheets and roast for 35-45 min until well cooked and starting to caramelize
5. Toast almonds in a pan in the oven until browned, ~ 5-10 min
6. Put the vegetable broth, star anise, and cinnamon stick in a medium saucepan and warm over medium heat
7. In a large nonstick saucepan, heat 2 Tbsp oil over medium heat
8. Add onion, garlic, and ¼ tsp salt and cook until softened, 5 min
9. Add rice and stir 2 min until toasted then add sherry and stir until absorbed
10. Add stock ½ cup at a time and stir until absorbed. Continue until all stock is used or rice is tender
11. Stir in parmesan until creamy and season to taste
12. Fold in potatoes and figs, and serve topped with almonds, thyme, and ricotta salata

Rating:

3/5 stars.

This was just ok. The risotto method, as always, didn’t let me down. But ultimately I found this dish to be too sweet for my tastes. I think the sweet potato was too sweet on top of the sweet figs. I should have chosen a more distinct vegetable (maybe fennel?) for better BALANCE, and an acidic element would also have helped here.