My love of really good food stems from a few places, but summer foods are definitely a big part of it. Growing up in Jersey there was nothing better than picking a fresh tomato and just eating it. Corn was sweet and bursting with flavor when you got it at the road side stands that dotted the drive to anywhere. Tomatoes and corn are so tied to summer in my mind that when I came across a recipe for risotto with both, I knew I had to try it.  

The tomatoes and corn were from the farmer’s market last week. I may have killed some of the tomato flavor by putting them in the fridge, but I knew they would be grated and I wanted to make sure they lasted. I did make a minor change to the risotto recipe – rather than using a dry white wine and sugar, I used a semi sweet rose that we had open. It worked well.  

 I also figured that the color would not matter since the tomatoes get added early so the rice takes on a pink color from those. I also salted more than just at the end; I am a firm believer in seasoning several times during the cooking process. I will also say, this particular recipe makes a lot of risotto – enough that we will be eating it for lunch most of this week.  

  For herbs I used a mix of basil and chives. I really wanted to use more basil as it goes so well with tomato, but I just didn’t have enough in the garden. So chives and basil mixed in at the end gave this just an added flavor and kept it light. So the NY Times cooking app is successful once again.