Lamb stock and pancetta risotto?!

After the truly scrumptious chicken stock risotto we enjoyed a few weeks ago, my first thought for using the lamb stock we made from the bone and bits from Sunday's shoulder of lamb roast was to make another risotto. This time, however, we didn't have any lamb meat left (having already used it to make a shepherd's pie). Odd though it may sound, my initial pondering was to add some bacon pieces to the risotto.

I did ask fellow foodies for alternative ideas (and particularly liked the idea of a potato and onion bake which is on the list to try next time). As well as many helpful suggestions, doubt was expressed that lamb stock would work well in a risotto, being rather a strong flavour. And I knew that combining lamb with pork would certainly be unorthodox!

In the end, Pete rather fancied the original idea of the risotto and we went ahead with that. The lamb fat skimmed off the stock, together with pork fat that came out of the pancetta during frying, were used instead of oil and butter to fry the risotto rice, before the stock was added in the normal way. The flavour from the lamb stock came through loud and clear and so did the smokey pancetta. Others might have felt they clashed but Pete and I really enjoyed the combination. It was tasty!