Sunflower Seed Risotto

During our Copenhagen trip this summer we visited the restaurant Relæ in Jægersborggade. Christian Puglisis flagship was one of our best food experiences of the entire foodcation. One of the dishes we got served was a sunflower seed risotto. This inspired us to make our own version. It is an extremely simple dish with few ingredients - thus it is even more important to use the best products out there. In our last visit to Gutta på Haugen we got recommended amazing products from the producer La Baita.

Ingredients

1/2 jar of tomato confit from La Baita
4 tbsp olive oil from La Baita
300 g of sunflower seeds
1 small shallot
1 liter of warm broth (we used beef broth)
1 tsp of Røros butter
Bacon
Fresh thyme for decoration

Ready steady stir!

Fry the diced shallot in the olive oil. Add the sunflower seeds and fry for 2 minutes. Keep the broth boiling in another pot. Now put the tomato confit in, and start adding broth one splash at a time. Keep stirring until the broth has evaporated. Repeat this until all of the broth is used. Taste the sunflower seeds. If they are al dente then it is done. If not, keep adding boiling water, until it is done.

Remove pot from heat, add the butter and close the pot with a lid. Let it rest for 2 minutes. This will add creaminess to the "risotto". In the meantime, fry the bacon until it is crispy but not too hard.

Serve the sunflower risotto with bacon unless you want to use this as a vegetarian dish. We're not, so we also poured some of the bacon fat into the risotto for extra flavor! Decorate with thyme. Enjoy.