Being a tour guide often positions me as a spokesperson for expats everywhere. I field all kinds of questions, one of the most frequent of which is whether I’m fluent in French.
My most oft-stated answer?
“I was when I moved here; now I’m not.”
It’s not, I explain to them, that my French has gotten worse, but rather that I’ve gotten less cocky. I did already speak quite well when I moved to France in 2007, but I’ve since realized that there are a handful of phrases I’ll always get wrong, and there are also a few phrases that, even though I know how to say them, I’ll always pronounce a little bit… off.
Pas du tout is one such phrase. It looks as though it should be simple to say – and it’s a pretty common utterance, translating to “not at all,” – but in reality, it requires you to say both the backed and fronted u sounds in very close succession, only one of which English has. If I’m ever speaking at my regular pace, I totally annihilate this one.
Actually, a lot of things that are hard to say in French require the fronted u in tu: huitre (oyster), which I generally pronounce as witre; mûre (blackberry), which I’ll sometimes say as myoor.
When I can, I avoid these phrases entirely.
But there’s one phrase that has nothing to do with this sound and that I still have trouble with:
Prends ton temps. Take your time.
It’s the transition from ton to temps – two distinct nasal vowels in French – that’s tough for this American, but I like to joke that it’s because I don’t know how to take my time. Known as “speedy gonzalez” by my middle school history teacher due to my my penchant for being the first one to turn in tests (often, much to my, his, and my parents’ dismay, without rereading them for simple errors), I’ve never found taking my time terribly easy. Even these days, I have a tendency to rush through things that’s quite contrary to the natural inclinations of the French.
And it’s kind of the antithesis of making risotto.
Luckily, this version of the dish doesn’t actually require that much time. It does, however, need quite a bit of butter.
This time of year, I’m always looking for ways to use up leftover tomato salad, which I put in the fridge to keep flies away but then cannot eat it because, ew, refrigerated tomatoes. I created this dish as a way to use up these leftovers, but it works just as well with fresh tomatoes. Either way, the pure flavor of tomato – without broth or cheese – is the highlight of the dish.
Tomato Risotto with Green Onions (serves 2)
3 summer tomatoes, diced
2 tablespoon olive oil, divided
3 green onions, sliced, white and green portions reserved separately
1 cup round rice
3 cups hot water (Note: Broth is hard to come by in France, and I’ve long been cooking without it. In the case of this dish, I think it’s actually better to use water, as the pure flavor of the tomatoes comes through.)
2-3 tablespoons butter
fleur de sel
If you’re not working with leftover tomato salad, combine the diced tomatoes with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and a nice pinch of fleur de sel. Allow to sit.
Meanwhile, heat the other tablespoon of olive oil in a heavy Dutch oven like a Le Creuset. Add the white portion of the onions and a pinch of fleur de sel, and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low, add the rice and stir well, coating the grains in fat and letting them go pearlescent.
Drain off the liquid from the tomatoes and add this to the rice. Stir well until all of the liquid is absorbed. Add 2 cups of the hot water, stir constantly until the water comes to a simmer, then cover. Walk away.
Come back after about 10 minutes and add the tomatoes. Stir well, then walk away again.
When the rice is cooked but still toothsome, remove the lid and stir constantly until any additional liquid is cooked off. Remove from the heat and add the diced butter, stirring vigorously to work it into the rice. Season as needed with salt, then add the green onion tops and serve.