The risotto recipe I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon started out as a from-the-freezer meal. It tastes of summer, but the grated and frozen summer squash, burst yellow tomatoes, and dried basil and parsley aren’t nearly as photogenic as fresh, barely cooked tomatoes and thin slivers of fresh squash and herbs. I altered my original recipe just so I could photograph the fresh dish, and it’s become a summertime favorite, especially when I’m cooking for family or friends.

My column includes both the fresh and the frozen versions, with the steps for adding fresh ingredients in the recipe and notes in the header for making this risotto in winter. Sungold, yellow pear, and other cherry-size tomatoes are so easy to freeze: just give them a rinse and pop them in a freezer bag. For summer squash, you’re getting the prep out of the way by grating and freezing. Drying herbs is simple, especially if you follow these tips. With these ingredients in your freezer and spice rack, along with homemade vegetable stock, this risotto becomes a sunny midweek, midwinter meal.

Learn more about swapping frozen for fresh ingredients and get the complete recipe for Sunshine Risotto in my column.

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Twice as Tasty

Excited about cooking more risottos? This rice dish has an undeserved reputation for being finicky and time consuming, so I started teaching a risotto workshop just to show people how easy it is to make—and how to quickly make a stock and shortcut the rice cooking for multiple meals. This has led me to publish several risotto variations on the blog and in my Flathead Beacon column. Here are just a few of those recipes. You can find more in the recipe index.

• Shrimp and Green Vegetable Risotto
• Winter Squash and Mushroom Risotto
• Fresh Improv Risotto
• Garden Risotto
• Last-Minute Shrimp Risotto

You can also learn more about ways to quickly save your (or your local farmer’s) summer harvest in this blog post.

Want more Twice as Tasty recipes? Get my books! Click here to order a personally signed, packaged, and shipped copy of The Complete Guide to Pickling directly from me. I also share tasty ways to use pickles in The Pickled Picnic; it’s only available here.