Claudia Roden is appearing at Chipping Norton Literary Festival on Sunday

Claudia Roden was born and brought up in Cairo, later moving to Paris and then London. She was drawn to food through a desire to evoke the pleasures of a happy life in Egypt and A Book of Middle Eastern Food has been a bestseller since 1970. Claudia continued to write about the social and historical background of food with her books The Food of Italy and The Book of Jewish Food. Her latest book is the award-winning Arabesque: Sumptuous Food from Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon.

RISOTTO WITH ASPARAGUS

Serves 6

* 1kg asparagus 
* 1.25 litres chicken or vegetable stock 
* salt 
* 1 onion, chopped 
* 60g unsalted butter 
* 2 tablespoons olive oil 
* 350g risotto rice 
* 1 bottle (750ml) dry white wine 
* freshly ground black pepper 
* grated parmesan to serve

Trim the asparagus. Cut off about 7.5 cm of tips and set them aside.

Cut the stalks into pieces and boil them in the stock until very tender.

Lift them out and put them through a food processor with a ladle of the stock. Strain out any hard stringy bits and return the puree to the pan with the stock.

In another saucepan, cook the asparagus tips in salted water for a few minutes only until just tender.

In a large saucepan, fry the onion in half the butter and oil over a low heat for about eight minutes, stirring occasionally until soft and translucent. Add the rice and stir to coat the grains well with the fat.

Pour in the wine, bring to the boil, add salt and pepper and simmer, gently stirring.

Add the stock containing the pureed asparagus gradually as it becomes absorbed, stirring often. Continue adding stock as required – you may need only as much as 600ml – until creamy and the grain is al dente.

Stir in the rest of the butter and serve garnished with the heated asparagus tips.

Pass the parmesan around!