THE ART OF FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER

A delicious, comforting dish with a punch that’s as soothing to make as it is to eat

It has been, it’s fair to say, a very strange summer. There have been distanced barbecues and the odd bit of eating out to help out; escapes to the seaside and long, salt and vinegar crispfuelled car journeys. There was a fleeting moment where you could drink cold beers with friends and revel in what it felt like to be a tiny bit more free. As we tumble into autumn, it’s hard to ignore the nagging feeling that everything might be about to change again. Those days of stockpiling tinned tomatoes feel distant now, but it wasn’t so long ago we were hovering over our supplies and hearing reports of people fighting over the last packets of pasta on bare supermarket shelves.

The kitchen is the place I retreat to when the world around feels tense. There is so little most of us can do about any of this that sticking a podcast on and making something nice for dinner seems as good a strategy as any.

Risotto is a useful, soothing dish because making it is so rhythmic. You have to stick with the pan and ladle and stir, ladle and stir until it’s right. Corn might seem an odd thing to put in a risotto, but stripping the kernels from a couple of ears and frying them with smoky bacon is seriously delicious. In fact, I could just eat that straight from the pan. The chive and garlic oil really makes this as it brings a welcome punch.

I’m making too much so I have some to drizzle on eggs and dress salads of the late summer tomatoes. You could even make extra risotto too, and use the leftovers for arancini tomorrow.

An oozing, deep fried risotto ball would be a very good thing to kick off Saturday evening.