Wild Leek Risotto

The wild leek, or ramp, turns up in farmers markets in the spring. The leaves are broad and bright green, and the slender bulbs are white. The whole plant smells strongly, somewhere between onions and garlic, but when you cook it, the flavors soften beautifully.
                       
Ramps are great with eggs, and also with rice. I like to use them in Wild Leek Risotto, because the white bulb makes a nice replacement for shallots, and the green leaves provide even more ramp flavor and a bright spark of color in the final dish.

When you use wild leeks in risotto, the slices of white bulb and ribbons of green leaf should be separated, because the whites need to cook longer.

This evening I started out by making a quick vegetable stock with the extra ramp leaves and also a carrot I threw in for balance, and to get those good orange vitamins. If you start the broth a few minutes ahead of the risotto itself, it will be ready when the Arborio has gotten to the brillatura stage, ready to receive the simmering stock.  
                     
So once the broth was going, I warmed the olive oil in a big, flat pan, and just barely stirred in the sliced whites of the ramps before adding the Arborio rice. When the rice turned translucent, I began to stir in ladles of the vegetable stock. Many ladles later, just before the rice was ready to absorb its last cup of broth, I added a finely chopped San Marzano tomato I had left over from making pizza sauce the other night. And at the very end, I threw in the green leaf ribbons of the wild leeks and—after the last-minute discovery that somebody had eaten up the rest of the Parmigianno in the fridge—two-thirds of a cup of grated Pecorino Romano cheese. When the risotto was ready, the leaf slivers were still bright green and the tomato flecks bright red.

As it turned out, the salty, sharp Pecorino Romano was perfect with the cooking-sweetened white parts of the leeks, the louder green ribbons of leaf, the bittersweet flecks of tomato, and the creaminess of the rice—exactly the right way to celebrate spring.

If you need help with risotto-making technique, visit the online risotto tutorial.

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