Emeril's One Pot Blogger Party - BLT Risotto

This Blogger party is starting to rock! If you want to follow along with some of the other bloggers participating in the review of Emeril Lagasse's new cookbook "Sizzling Skillets and other One-Pot Wonders", check them out here. The Lasagna I made on Sunday has made for some great lunches the last couple of days but alas the party must go on and the second dish I chose to make was a "BLT" Risotto.

Risotto is definitely one of my favorite dishes to both make and to eat. It's always a fun process and there are so many variations that make each dish completely different. Emeril bumps it up a notch in this version, combining thick cut bacon, fresh tomatoes and baby spinach to create a great take on the classic BLT sandwich.

This one starts by cooking down the bacon and then toasting the arborio rice in the rendered bacon fat. The diced tomatoes and baby spinach are thrown in at the end ensuring that they're not overcooked. I love how the fresh taste of the tomatoes remains and the spinach is just barely wilted by the heat of the risotto. If you haven't tried a risotto before, this is great one to try and then you can experiment with adding and taking away flavors as you wish.

If you're planning on having leftovers, pull out a a portion of the risotto before adding the spinach. The spinach doesn't hold up very well and you can always add it back in as you warm it back up.

Coming up soon I'll be offering a chance to win a copy of this amazing book, but first I have an Emeril by Zak 7pc. Table Art Set for someone to win. They're fun to play with and work great for both prepping ingredients and serving your meals in a fun way.

Here's the deal, I don't usually enter giveaways myself and I've never done a giveaway on my site before, mainly because I don't like all the hoops people usually make you jump through to win something. So for this one, I'll make it real simple, if you want to win the bowls, just leave me a comment below saying so! If you want to "like" my facebook page or follow me on twitter, I'd love to have you, but I'd rather have ya do it because you want to, and because you think I'm pretty amazing, not just to win something. This is open to US addresses only. I'll randomly pick a winner on Friday September 16th. Make sure you leave contact info in your comment or your attached profile.



{Disclaimer: As part of this blogger party I received a free copy of the cookbook, a set of Emeril by Zak Table Art, a bottle of Emeril's Essence Spice mix and will receive a small grocery stipend and other Emeril cookbooks following the event. All opinions expressed are my own.}