This summer fish and prawn risotto is summer food at its finest. A light and creamy risotto, that is perfect for summer entertaining, date night or as an easy weeknight meal. With the zesty lemon, fresh parmesan and perfectly cooked seafood, this will be your new favourite on the dinner table this August.
How is summer almost over? Seriously, the summer months go by so fast, and then you blink and suddenly it's freezing again and the fall leaves are turning. We have had a beautiful, but busy summer so I'm taking the time to slow down a bit this August and enjoy the last few weeks of the summer break.
When it's hot outside, I love to look for meals that are really light and fresh, without being too filling. There is nothing worse than trying to sleep with a belly overloaded with rich, foods, which is why I love making this prawn risotto recipe in the summertime
Risotto is one of my favorite dishes and I've definitely made a few in my life. In spring time, we love our pea and mushroom risotto. Summer, it's this gorgeous fish and prawn risotto, and I'm still combing up with some ideas for a fall and winter risotto dish - any suggestions? Regardless of the season, risotto is super versatile and actually quite easy to master with a few simple steps.
Tips for Perfecting our Fish and Prawn Risotto
Adam is a great cook, and risotto is definitely his speciality, so I've badgered him for a long time to spill his risotto making secrets.
Here are Adam's top tips for this fish and prawn risotto:
- Make sure you coat every grain of rice with butter/olive oil when you add your arborio rice
- Heat the stock before it's time to add it to the rice. Add your stock bit by bit
- Avoid stirring risotto...at all times...if it is burning, you've probably not added enough liquid or got the heat up way too high! Avoid it sticking to the bottom of the pan by making sure there is always a layer of stock up until serving.
- Continue to taste the rice through the process to understand what stage of the risotto making process you are at! You want the rice just soft enough without being too mushy.
- Add seasoning towards the end as you will get salt from the stock! Add more lemon zest and parmesan according to your taste.
The process involved in cooking risotto is actually really simple, but it does require you to be on the ball with the cooking process so that it doesn't burn. This is NOT a set and forget recipe unless you want paella instead of risotto! Just sayin'!
As far as ingredients go, this prawn risotto is pretty simple. You'll need around 20 raw prawns/shrimp, and around ½ a pound/250g of white fish. I tend to use tilapia as it's easy to find in my supermarket, but any other white, firm fish will be fine. The key here is to use firm fish, as it keeps it shape. Other fish you could use could be barramundi (in Australia), snapper, sea bass or cod.
As well as fish, it's important to use arborio rice in this recipe. Arborio rice is specifically for risotto and will leave the risotto with a beautiful, creamy, texture. As garnishes, I love to add in parmesan cheese, finely chopped parsley and lots of lemon zest! I adore lemon in this recipe as it pairs beautifully with the fish and prawns!
I also discovered the other day, that rose wine can be substituted for the white wine, so long as it's a dry wine not a sweet wine. I've used rose in savory dishes before and I didn't really notice much of a difference between white wine and rose. I didn't have any white wine handy but had some rose open and it worked perfectly.
This is the perfect dish for a date night, easy weeknight meal or if you're entertaining with friends and want to show your skills!
A total summer favourite, let's say goodbye to summer in style, what do you think?
Georgie x x
📖 Recipe
Fish and Prawn Risotto
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 shallots finely sliced
- 4 slices bacon
- 1 cup arborio rice
- 1 cup white wine
- 4 cups vegetable stock
- 20 prawns/shrimp
- ½ lbs tilapia or other firm, white fish
- 2 teaspoon lemon zest
- 2 tablespoon parmesan cheese finely grated
- 1 tablespoon parsley finely chopped
Instructions
- Heat oil and butter in a large fry pan or Dutch oven over low heat until butter is melted.
- Add shallots and bacon, and saute for about 10 minutes or until shallots go opaque.
- Meanwhile, add vegetable stock to a separate saucepan, and heat over low to medium heat until warm (not boiling).
- Once shallots have gone opaque, sprinkle arborio rice over bacon and shallot mixture. Stir and continue to saute. The secret here is that every single grain of rice MUST be covered with butter/olive oil. Keep stirring, and up the heat a little bit so that each grain toasts a little and begins to absorb the butter and oil.
- Add the wine. Pour over rice and stir once or twice.
- Lower heat, and leave the wine to soak in.
- Once the wine is starting to soak in, ladle spoons of vegetable stock into the frying pan. The key here is to add stock about half a cup at a time and top up every time the stock is absorbed. At this stage, leave the lid on and simmer away, checking it every few minutes to add the stock. Again, don't stir! If you feel the need prod to see whats going on at the pan surface. If you find it starting to dry up, keep adding the stock.
- Once the stock is all gone and the rice is starting to soften (taste test to see), add the fish and prawns and gently stir.
- Add salt and pepper to start to build flavour.
- Add lemon rind, and leave to simmer for about 10 minutes, but make sure you check the rice and add stock if it is starting to dry up. The dutch oven should still be on low temperature.
- The fish and prawns will cook quickly, so just before serving, taste to see if they are cooked. The prawns should be orange in colour, and the fish should be white the whole way through.
- Serve and top with chopped parsley, and more lemon rind.
- Squeeze some fresh lemon juice over the top to serve with freshly grated parmesan.
Notes
Nutrition
This recipe first appeared on the blog back in 2016 and has since been updated with process shots and more detailed recipe notes.
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Adriana Lopez Martn says
Rissotto is such a great dish, difficult to make it perfect but it is worth the effort and more when it has shrimps and bacon yes please!
Georgie says
it can be a little tricky to make, but once you perfect the technique, it's easy! shrimp and bacon are THE best!
Emily Hill says
This sounds like an amazing summer-inspired risotto!
Georgie says
thanks so much Emily! I love the freshness of the flavors.
Marie says
What a perfect easy summer meal! So flavourful. Thank Adam for sharing all his tips for making risotto too.
Georgie says
ha ha I'll tell him you said that! he is so good at making risotto, I couldn't resist not sharing his tips 🙂
Dahn says
Oh a creamy risotto will always capture my attention and taste buds. This looks amazing. All I need is a salad and a fork!
Georgie says
creamy risottos are the best! this one has a lovely lemony flavor to it too!
Sandi says
I am falling in love with the recipe. I am addicted to Seafood and always trying to find new recipes.
Georgie says
Thanks Sandi 🙂 I am a seafood addict too, I'd take it any day over red meat!
Cecie says
I just posted a comment on Reddit - I almost missed the fact you have a WONDERFUL food blog!! You know what, I'd recommend mentioning - in bold & at the top - that people can go to your blog and that you've included the link at the end of the post. That's what I do - and your blog is so great I wouldn't want anyone to miss going to your page!