Beetroot Speltotto with Goat’s Cheese and Chicory | Recipe

Serves: 4

I’m usually the one saying, ‘Cook your beetroot whole!’ and ‘Leave the skin on!’ but in this recipe I’m going to tell you to do the exact opposite: ‘Peel the beetroot and cut them up into little cubes.’ I’m doing this because the beetroot gets cooked in the same way you’d cook a risotto, so you don’t lose flavour. I’m using pearled spelt instead of a short-grain rice, although pearled barley also works well. Take your time and make sure you have a tasty stock (you can add the beetroot peelings to the stock if you like, just strain them out before you use the liquid). I like to finish the speltotto with chicory leaves – their bitter edge goes so well with the sweetness of the beetroot. I also crumble over soft goat’s cheese, but you could use ricotta instead.

Ingredients

• 50g butter
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for trickling
• 4 red beetroot (beets), peeled and cut into 5–10mm cubes
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 2 celery sticks, cut into 2–3mm dice
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
• finely grated zest of ½ lemon
• 150g pearled spelt, rinsed
• 175ml medium-dry (hard) cider
• 750ml hot vegetable stock
• 50g hard goat’s, cow’s or sheep’s cheese, grated
• 2 small chicory heads
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve

• 100g goat’s cheese or ricotta
• a handful of chervil (optional)

Method

Place a large heavy-based saucepan over a medium-hot  fire. Add half the butter and the extra-virgin olive oil and when it’s all bubbling away, add the beetroot (beets), onion, celery, garlic, fennel seeds and lemon zest. Season with  some salt and pepper and stir well. Fry everything gently for  6–8 minutes, until the vegetables are beginning to soften and smell sweet.

Get a bit more heat under the pan and add the spelt, stir, and add the cider, letting it bubble away for a minute or so. Start adding the hot stock, a ladleful at a time, stirring continuously. (It’s important to stir everything really well.) When the spelt has absorbed the stock, add some more and stir again. Repeat until you have used up all the stock. Drop in the remaining butter and grated cheese. Stir well, until the butter and cheese have melted.

Trim the base from the chicory heads and separate the leaves. Give them a quick rinse then arrange the leaves over the top of the speltotto. Remove the pan from the heat. Crumble over the goat’s cheese or ricotta and strew the top with chervil, if you’re using it. Season with plenty of salt and pepper and trickle with extra-virgin olive oil. Serve straight from the pan.