Experiments with Soffritto, pt.1

During one of my "ooh, it's 8pm, I wonder what Waitrose will be selling cheap before they close" walks, I stumbled upon a packet of soffritto, reduced from a still-quite-reasonable 99p to a bargainous 29p. It was somewhat of an impulse purchase, and no doubt my initial thoughts involved chucking it in a soup, but it went in the freezer with some other bits and bobs, and was promptly forgotten about.

In my latest attempts at 'proper' frugality (read: eating everything in house for real this time due to employment situation, rather than just talking about it and caving in three days later), I've decided to go a little bit back to basics, and bring out some old student tips - mostly in the form of menu planning.
I have very mixed feelings about menu planning, which I shall go into at another time, but as a start to the process, it's generally a good idea to work out what you have in the cupboards and freezer. Of course, this naturally meant a good rummage, reminding me of things I forgot I had (3 pigs cheeks), and things I bought on a whim when reduced, and am not sure what to do with because I don't really eat them (4 chicken breasts). I also discovered a slightly sad and lonely chorizo sausage floating around the bottom of the middle drawer, and the aforementioned bag of soffritto. I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this...

Soffritto and Chorizo Risotto
Serves 1

200g soffritto mix
25g butter, or a tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, diced
75g risotto rice, such as Arborio or carnaroli
1 chorizo sausage, roughly 75g, finely sliced (you can do this from frozen if you have raw chorizo and a sharp knife)
100ml white wine if you have it)
1 tbsp tomato paste
450ml low salt chicken stock

Melt the butter in a medium pan, and stir in the garlic, soffritto mix and chorizo. Cook slowly until the oils begin to melt out of the chorizo, and the vegetables start to soften. Stir in the rice, toasting it in the oil and butter, for a minute, before pouring in the wine. Allow to simmer, stirring to avoid sticking, until the liquid has been absorbed. Stir in the tomato paste. Slowly add stock, roughly 100ml at a time, stirring and simmering until absorbed. When the rice is cooked, soft but slightly with a bite, stop adding more stock and serve.

This is the first time I have cooked with soffritto, and there will be no money going into my bank account until Friday, so forgive the slightly basic nature of the recipe. If you're feeling adventurous, you could add some fresh prawns in towards the end - and a bit of saffron if you're flush. It is mighty tasty though - remniscent of paella, but without the seafood. It's worth a try though, for an easy freezer dinner. I've still got half a packet left, so more experiments will no doubt follow.

Turns out that it's quite hard to photograph risotto. Will have to work on this!