Tomato risotto is delicious and simple to make. The basic risotto recipe is lifted with the additional of tomato stock and confit tomatoes.

Tomato risotto is a favourite family meal in our house. It’s a dish that my eldest daughter often asks for on her Birthday.

A bowl of tomato based risotto garnished with basil and served in a white bowl on a pink napkin with a fork to the side.

It’s simple to cook but always a treat. This creamy tomato risotto always makes me think of summer. It’s such a lovely, light dinner dish.

I think there is a lightness to any vegetable based risotto, a few simple ingredients added together to make a tasty bowl of food.

This simple tomato and basil risotto is one of my favourite risottos, as it marries together 2 of my favourite flavour ingredients.

Why you have to stir risotto?

Critical to a good risotto is to ensure that you stir the rice. It is the stirring action that stops the rice from sticking to the pan. Stirring also helps the rice release its starches, giving the dish its creamy consistency.

Firstly, when added to the pan, the rice is toasted for around a minute to toast it before any liquid is added. Stir constantly to stop the rice from burning and sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Secondly, you need to keep stirring the rice once you are at the stage of adding in the wine, cooking it at a high temperature to reduce the wine.
Finally, you need to keep stirring as you add in the stock, this is cooked over a low-medium heat. You don’t need to stir continuously, but neither should you walk away from the pan. Instead add the stock gradually and stir the rice every 30 seconds to move it around the pan and stop it from sticking.

Tomato risotto recipe steps:

onions, garlic and celery sautéing in a pan. — Start by adding some olive oil and butter into a frying pan over a medium heat. Add in the onion and celery and cook gently for 5 minutes, taking care to soften but not colour the vegetables. Now add the garlic to the pan and saute for a further minute.
Add the rice to the pan and toast in gently in the vegetables for a minute, stirring constantly to stop it sticking.
Next turn the heat up and add the vermouth or wine to the pan, stirring until the wine has reduced.

Making risotto and adding stock with a ladle — Turn the heat down on the pan to a low-medium heat. Add the warm stock in gradually a ladle at a time. Stir the rice ever 30 seconds to stop it from sticking.

a pan of risotto cooking slowly — Keep adding the stock a ladle at a time until it is all incorporated into the rice, approx 20 minutes. The rice should be cooked through but still have some bite.

tomato risotto in the final stages of cooking by adding mascarpone cream and basil. — Take the pan off the heat and allow the risotto to sit for 3 minutes, before stirring in the sundried tomatoes, mascarpone cheese and fresh basil leaves.

A finished pan of tomato risotto. — Give a final stir to combine all elements of this creamy tomato risotto, check for seasoning and serve immediately. You can grate a little parmesan over the risotto if you wish.

Tomato risotto recipe ingredients and substitutions:

Rice: the best risotto rice to use is either carnaroli or arborio rice.
Tomato stock: good tomato stock will always give your sun dried tomato risotto depth of flavour. However, for speed your could blend 500ml vegetable stock with 250ml tomato juice instead.
Confit/sun-blush tomatoes: we used our own Oven Roasted Tomatoes in this sun dried tomato risotto, but you can substitute with shop bought sun dried or sun-blush tomatoes instead.
White vermouth: adds a real depth of flavour to this risotto, however you can substitute with white wine if you would prefer.
Mascarpone cheese: the creamy element to this creamy tomato risotto is added with the addition of Mascarpone cheese. If you can’t find marscarpone cheese, substitute with cream cheese, loosened with a little whipping cream.
Parmesan cheese: is grated over the top of the finished risotto. However, if you want to intensify the cheese flavour you can stir this through the risotto at the end. Just don’t add to much otherwise you will overpower the flavour of the tomato and basil.

Useful hints & tips:

A combination of onion (or shallot), celery and garlic makes a great base for any risotto, regardless of the flavour you are making.
If you want to add extra vegetables to this sun dried tomato risotto then please do so. Courgette, aubergine or mushroom would all work with the tomato.
Tomato and basil risotto is not an ideal make-ahead dish. It is best served freshly made, straight from the pan. Otherwise the rice does tend to get really sticky.
However, that’s not to say that you can’t heat up any leftovers, it just won’t have the same bite! But as with all rice dishes ensure you reheat to piping hot.

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Additional recipe suggestions:

If you like this recipe then try some of these other simple recipes:

Looking for inspiration for feeding the family mid week, then take a look at our Ultimate Guide to Family Dinners. Full of useful hints, tips and recipes.

This recipe has been linked up to CookBlogShare, click on the link to find recipes from other food bloggers.

Jacqui Bellefontaine

Saturday 15th of July 2017

Love risotto but have never made a tomato one before but your pics make it look so yummy I think that is going to have to change soon. It really sounds delicious and I like the tip to add tomato juice to the stock what a good idea!.

Thank you for sharing to #CookBlogShare.

Michelle

Wednesday 26th of July 2017

Thanks Jacqui! We did a Supper Club recently where we used the tomato consomme with our ravioli and it was so tasty we needed to find another dish and this was the perfect choice. Hope you do try and would love to hear what you think.

Cheers Michelle x

tomato risotto