Recipe: Roasted Pumpkin Risotto

 A rich risotto that's full of flavour, a great alternative to pumpkin soup after Halloween

I don't like throwing away perfectly good food so I'm always on the lookout for things to make with my pumpkins after the festivities have finished but often get tired of having soup. This recipe mixes it up a little and as it only uses half the pumpkin, you don't have to ruin the nice carving you've made. Out of season you can substitute butternut squash for the pumpkin, it takes about 1 medium sized squash and the rest of the recipe is the same.

 

Ingredients:

½ a pumpkin

1 medium onion

3 cloves of garlic

250g of risotto rice

750ml of vegetable stock

1 glass of white wine

3 tablespoons of butter

olive oil

handful of sage

handful of grated parmesan

Serves 2-4

How to make:

Start with half a pumpkin, gutted to remove all the seeds and the stringy bits. Peel the hind off and dice the remaining flesh. I like to have it quite small but this is up to you, just adjust the roasting time accordingly. Once diced place on a baking tray, season with salt and pepper and coat in some olive oil, pre-heat your over to 190 degrees C and place your tray on the middle shelf. Roast until cooked through, this should be around 15 minutes but will depend on the size you've gone with.

While this is cooking, peel and finely chop your onions and garlic and place your stock in a saucepan on a low heat to warm it through. In a casserole dish (or deep rimmed frying pan) put 1½ tablespoons of butter and a couple of glugs of olive oil and heat on medium. Once the butter has melted sauté the onions and garlic for around 10 minutes, until they are nice and soft.

Next, turn up the heat and add the risotto rice, stirring as you go. Keep giving this a good stir so that the rice is coated in the oil/butter mix and the onions and garlic are mixed in well. Add the glass of white wine to this and cook (again stirring) until the smell of alcohol has gone.

Now you can add the stock, but this needs to be done slowly. My tip is to do this a ladle at a time and between each one give the risotto a good stir until the rice has soaked up the stock. Keep doing this until you have one ladle left to add. Before adding this add your cooked pumpkin cubes, then the last ladle of stock and gently stir.

In a separate pan heat the other 1½ tablespoons of butter and add the sage leaves. Do this until the sage is nice and crispy, but make sure you gently stir the risotto as well to stop it catching. Once crispy add the butter/sage mixture onto the top of the risotto along with a handful of grated parmesan and put a lid on the pan. Leave this for 5-10 minutes then give a last gentle stir before serving.

Feel free to add more parmesan at the table and/or a couple of sage leaves on top.