Party in my Kitchen: Spinach Risotto

The first time I tried making risotto was a few months ago, when I found a nice-sized container of arborio rice on sale. And wow, is it delicious. The starch content of the rice makes it rich and creamy without any added cream (although added cream is nice, I won't lie). If you don't have any, Cook's Thesaurus suggests short-grain white rice (sushi rice) or pearl barley (which sounds really interesting; I should try that sometime). Frozen spinach is a staple of my diet and I'm always looking for new things to do with it, so I tweaked this recipe a bit and it came out beautifully.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. olive oil
1 medium-large red onion
8 cups water
2 Knorr vegetable bouillon cubes
1/3 c. cooking sherry (or whatever wine you have laying around)
2 c. arborio rice
2 10-oz. packages frozen spinach
1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese

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Chop the onion. Cry.

Saute the onion in the olive oil.

Bring the water to a boil with the bouillon cubes. (I watered down the broth so it wouldn't be too salty, but I probably could have added another half cube to no ill effect.) Keep the broth covered on low heat while you're cooking the rice.

Add the rice to the onions and stir until it's coated with oil. Try not to let it burn while you're taking pictures.

Add the sherry, then add the hot broth one ladle at a time, stirring until it's mostly absorbed before adding the next ladle. This is a long and tedious process, so drag your computer into the kitchen and watch cheesy TV shows.

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Doesn't that look lovely?

When the rice is almost done (you might not need all the broth), add the spinach. You can stand there scraping little bits off the frozen blocks as they thaw, or you can let it thaw beforehand, which might be the better choice.