A Nice Slice of Rice

When I was a student I once spotted a beautiful and moody looking dark haired boy coming out of a lecture. I saw him around a couple of times but didn’t know anyone who knew him. My flatmate was doing a fast track Italian course as she’d be spending a year in Italy. So was he. I got her to invite him for dinner. I’m like that. He turned out to be called Patrick. He was cool. James Dean school of cool.

I can’t remember what I cooked as the main course, but it was Italian, and I do remember cooking rice like this because I knew he would never have seen it before. In return he introduced me to Marlboro Lights. It took years to get over him and even longer to get over the Marlboro Lights.

500g fresh or 300g frozen whole leaf spinach

250g Arborio rice

1 onion chopped

1 tbsp oil

25g butter

3 eggs

4 tbsp grated parmesan

Pepper

A decent pinch grated nutmeg

Wash the spinach and remove the stems and cook until it softens (Just defrost, if using frozen). Drain and chop fairly finely.

Boil the rice for 10 mins, until nearly done. I have a nagging doubt that I used ordinary rice – I’m not convinced Arborio was to be had in Hackney Wick in 1990. Anyway, Patrick didn’t notice and I would use the proper stuff now. Stir the spinach in with the boiling rice, briefly and then drain it.

Fry the onion in the oil until golden and mix it together with the rice and spinach in a bowl. Add the butter, cheese , eggs, pepper and nutmeg. Somehow I can’t imagine the parmesan was grated off a block (see above) but I would now. Mix well and press into a buttered cake tin. I have a feeling egg dripped out of the bottom of my cake tin until it started setting so lining the tin might be a plan.

Bake at 200 or gas 6 for about 25 mins. It should look golden. Turn it out and serve in wedges like a cake.

I really can’t remember what I served this with – something like an Osso Bucco I hope , though it definitely wasn’t that.

Patrick, like the cigarettes, wasn’t good for me. We fought all the time, he once poisoned me at his own dinner party. I loved him. He did sleep with me once. He slept with my flatmate much more than once. He was one of my best mistakes.