I rarely use crème fraîche in a risotto, so I gave this fresh lemony courgette risotto a try.
It is a rather straight forward risotto I found on BBC Good Food with a suitable liquid to rice ratio. A load of courgette, thyme, and lemon zest and juice make it a very fresh and tasty dish that cuts through the additional richness of the crème fraîche.
The recipe is straightforward to follow and accurate; it serves 4. The only thing that I did differently was separately pan-frying the diced courgette (I just used 2 whole ones, rather than measuring 250g / 8oz, and used a bit more thyme) and added it later on as it would have crowded the risotto pan too much when following the recipe to the letter.
The risotto needed a pretty good amount of seasoning, but using 2 stock cubes instead of 1 would have helped in that respect as well. The addition of 2 tbsp of crème fraîche is enough to make the risotto nice and creamy, but also made it a bit more ‘liquid’ compared to just using butter. So you may want to cook the risotto a tad longer than usual before adding the crème fraîche and parmesan cheese.
The kids give it an (expected) lukewarm response: “too many veggies, not enough cheese”. 😊 We thought it was a delicious dish, though.
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