Emeril’s One Pot Cooking Party: BLT Risotto (or PST Risotto) + A GIVEAWAY!

UPDATE (7/22/2011): This giveaway is closed. The winner is JoeyfromSC! Congrats—check your email!

I realize that is the longest title of a blog post ever. I have no excuses, I had a lot to say. Deal with it. At least it includes the word “giveaway,” so I better not hear any complaints!

When I got my copy of Sizzling Skillets and One-Pot Wonders by Emeril Lagasse, I knew right away I would make this recipe. I love BLT sandwiches. I mean, I really, really love BLTs. Especially in the summer time with a thick, juicy, beefsteak tomato. Yum! And risotto? Who doesn’t love risotto? Comfort in a bowl. I knew the two combined would be a winner.

Since I had some left-over pancetta from the bolognese, I decided to sub out the bacon for pancetta. Other ingredients included in this risotto are white wine, chicken stock, Parmigiano-Reggiano, fresh thyme, spinach, and tomatoes. Oh, and butter. Can’t go wrong with any of those ingredients. So that is where PST comes from. It isn’t really a BLT, since there isn’t bacon or lettuce in my version. Pancetta-Spinach-Tomato. Yum! Might also stand for Pretty Sure it’s Tasty.  Perhaps Sort of Tantalizing. Was that too much of a stretch? You’re probably thinking Please Stop That.

Is it also a stretch to say it is healthy because it includes spinach and tomatoes? It definitely isn’t the most unhealthy thing you could eat.

I’ll move on. Emeril’s recipe (which again, I can’t share with you–so sorry! Book giveaway coming.) called for crisping up the bacon and then adding everything else in and cooking the bacon in with the risotto the entire time. I’m sure this yields incredible flavor to the risotto, but I love my bacon (pancetta in my case) crispy. So after I fried it, I took it out of the pan and added it back in at the end. Personal preference. Also, to be fair, this recipe required two pots. One to keep the broth warm and one to cook the risotto in. But, it is completely worth dirtying two pans for. Promise.

Note: This skillet? Very, very close to being too small for this dish. Things were touch-and-go for awhile. A few beautiful pieces of pancetta were lost when  they went overboard and fell onto the stovetop.

*moment of silence*

Just kidding. I threw them back in and now they’re in my belly. I’m not sure which fate is worse. Well we are on the topic of eating, this makes a TON, just like all the recipes in this book, but it is great left over.

So now on to the giveaway! UPDATE (7/22/2011): This giveaway is closed. The winner is JoeyfromSC! Congrats—check your email!

Giveaway Details:

-Giveaway includes one set of Emeril Flames 7 peice serving set. Pictures of dishes are from zak.com. It is a really fun set, it can be configured a number of different ways to showcase different foods.
-Only open to US residents (Sorry!)
-Begins now (Ready set GO!) and ends….Wednesday 9/21/11. I’ll pick a winner Thursday morning.

Here’s what you have to do:

Comment on this post! Tell me which Emeril dish looks best so far (from my blog or others!), or just say hello. Tell me how happy you are that it is Friday.

To earn extra entries (make sure to leave a separate comment for each):

1. Follow @not_rachaelray on Twitter
2. “Like” Not Rachael Ray on Facebook 
3. Subscribe to my RSS feed or add your name to my email list.
4. Tweet about this giveaway: You can use this if you want: “@not_rachaelray is giving away serving dishes by @emeril and @zak_designs! http://www.rachelcooks.com/2011/09/14/blt-risotto-giveaway/ ‎”
5. Like Emeril on Facebook.
6. Follow Emeril Lagasse on Twitter.
7. Follow Zak Designs on Twittter.
8. Like The Secret Ingredient on Facebook.
9. Follow The Secret Ingredient on Twitter.

That’s up to 10 (!) chances to win! Enter by Wednesday night (9/21)  and I’ll choose a winner using random.org on Thursday morning (9/22). Good luck!

Just for fun, here’s a video of the bowls (and Emeril)  in action:

Full disclosure: For my commitment to this blogger cooking party, I received a copy of this cookbook, as well as a set of Emeril – by zak! Table Art 7-piece Flame-Shaped Serving Bowls, and Emeril Seasoning; a $50 grocery reimbursement and Emeril cookbooks upon completion of the party. The top performing blogger, as selected by T-Fal, will be awarded an Emeril by T-Fal Slow Cooker. You will be eligible to win a copy of the cookbook, as well as the 7-piece zak! set (stick around to hear more about those two things). All opinions about the book and recipes, as always, are my own.

Tagged as: BLT, emeril, pancetta, risotto