I decided to use a one-day Whole Foods sale earlier this week on local haystack goat cheese as an excuse to try out a new recipe - for Smoked Goat Cheese Risotto with Sherry Mushrooms off of katheats. I won't reproduce the recipe here since I followed it nearly word for word - just reduced the salt to 1/2 tsp kosher flakes and used brandy instead of sherry since that's all I had. And I'm glad I did follow directions because it was DELICIOUS. I haven't had risotto in forever, I really need to make it more often! The only thing I'd change is to reduce the paprika and/or pepper a bit - I'm not sure if my variety was a little stronger or what, but it had more 'kick' than I would ideally have liked, making it hard to taste the more mellow flavors. This recipe made 4 servings, so I have leftovers and am going to try freezing part to see how it does. The goat cheese really made this, and it wasn't too 'goaty' for those who aren't huge goat cheese fans (I love the expression 'goaty' (goatey?), that's how the lady at the whole foods cheese counter described some cheese to my dad when he was visiting, as 'not TOO goaty').
Served with asparagus (as you can tell from my recent posts, I love asaparagus and am taking full advantage of it being in season!).
NOTE: As I was looking at the recipe to post this I just noticed that I left off the walnuts accidently - they weren't required since it was delicious without, although I'll probably throw them on next time since they would add some nice texture (pine nuts or pepitas would also be good).
