Thursday, August 13, 2009

Presto Pasta Nights: Homemade Rice-a-Roni

I'm excited to share one of my favourite signature dishes - Homemade Rice-a-Roni.



It's nothing fancy, just plain ol' comfort food but it's sooo versatile! The base recipe tastes like the store-bought Rice-a-Roni my mom used to make as I was growing up but this recipe is more fun because I get to flavour it to my liking. Today I felt like adding white wine, chicken stock, toasted almonds and a hint of garam masala. Dried cranberries are good too. Ooo... sundried tomatoes and basil would be tasty...

*Note to self, make sun-dried tomato rice-a-roni.

Try it! It's easy to customize, quick to make and it's a great side for chicken, beef, pork, fish... anything really!

Homemade Rice-a-Roni is my contribution to Presto Pasta Nights hosted this week by the delightful Psychgrad at Equal Opportunity Kitchen.

2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, finely chopped
2/3 cup white rice
2/3 cup spaghettini, broken in 1/2 inch pieces
2 cups liquid (broth, combination broth and wine, combination broth and apple juice)
Spices and toppings to taste

Melt butter in 2 quart saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and sauté 3 minutes. Add rice and broken pasta, stirring frequently until golden brown (3 to 5 minutes). Add liquid, spices and appropriate toppings (or you may wish to add toppings at the end). Bring to a boil, cover and cook over very low heat until liquid is absorbed, about 15 to 20 minutes. Stir before serving.

Yield: 4 - 6 portions

2 comments:

  1. Yay! You got it in. I think this is the first PPN dish I've ever tasted (other than my own food, of course). It was a great dish! Thanks for having us over - it was fun.

    Back to the roundup (I'm going to be up half the night doing this).

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  2. Sounds so fantastic. And now I can stop looking for rice-a-roni and make something so much better. Thanks for sharing with Presto Pasta Night.

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