Gorgonzola Risotto

You’ll notice a little something different about today’s post. No pictures of food! Now don’t worry, I am giving you a recipe (a very delicious recipe in fact!). However the pictures of the food weren’t nearly as pretty as my pictures from New York City last weekend! You might remember that I met my mom in New York last weekend to celebrate her birthday. We had three girls-only days in the big city.

I’ve been to New York a many number of times and know my way around pretty well. Of course, it’s pretty tough to get lost when you’re in Midtown, all the streets are numbered. Once I get to the East Village is when I start to get all turned around, especially after coming out of the subway. I think all I need is a compass, then I wouldn’t go the wrong direction nearly as often as I do. It’s too bad the compass on the iPhone doesn’t work in New York. The signal bounces off the buildings and your GPS thinks you are inside of a building three blocks away, not helpful.

So what did we do in our weekend in the city? We went shopping, we saw the sights and we watched a show. We also ate a lot of cupcakes. Seriously, we had cupcakes every single day that we were there. Rather than heading to just a single bakery, we decided to check out a couple of different ones. You know, we had to compare and contrast the product, right?

Personally I fell in love with my peanut butter cup cupcake from Crumbs, although I was covered in frosting when I finished eating it. I was licking it off of my elbow, I’m pretty sure there was frosting in my hair too. I was a little wired that night! Mom liked her vanilla cupcake from Eleni’s Bake shop, located inside of Chelsea Market. They also served up a mean raspberry cupcake, super delicious.

It was a great weekend, full of history, culture, shops and sugar!

Gorgonzola Risotto

Adapted from Everyday Pasta

2 tbsp butter
1 cup Arborio rice
½ cup white wine
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup gorgonzola cheese
¼ cup dried cranberries
½ tbsp fresh thyme

In a medium stockpot, heat chicken stock to a simmer. In another stockpot, melt butter over medium heat. Add Arborio rice and stir to coat with butter. Allow to cook for about 2 minutes to bring out a nutty flavor.

Add white wine and stir until all the liquid is absorbed. Add chicken stock, a ladleful at a time, stirring the whole time. After every two ladles of stock, add a quarter cup of heavy cream. Add more liquid until it can absorb no more liquid and it has the desired texture. This should take about 20 minutes. In the last three minutes add thyme. Once your risotto is completely cooked, remove from heat and add gorgonzola cheese and dried cranberries.