This dish was inspired by the classic Greek combination of feta cheese and olives. It is a tomato based pasta sauce with the added mediterranean flavour of fennel. Fennel is one of my favourite vegetables, I love to eat it raw, and I cook with it to. Olives added to a pasta dish is a great way to add some flare and colour to a pasta.
This dish was inspired by a meal I ordered at a local restuarant. There’s no doubt the original chef-made version was very high fat, but I have recreated it as a healthy alternative. It is a pesto flavoured risotto made with pearl barley instead of the traditional arborio rice. Pearl barley is a high fibre grain that needs to be cooked for longer than rice (due to the unrefined nature of it), and is often soaked overnight for quickest cooking. The feta cheese matches really well with the lamb in this dish, and the tomato just adds colour and a fresh cool flavour.
Risotto is a great one-pot dish and is very quick to make. It is the type of meal that you can substitute whatever ingredients you have in your fridge or pantry. This great tasting risotto is a perfect match with grilled fish. The recipe has been modified from Sally James’ Victor Chang Cardiac Research Cookbook, with the original recipe using beef, which I replaced with fish, as I thought it better suited the lemony risotto.
