Roasted butternut squash with creamy risotto -so yummy
Everybody who is passionate about cooking has one dish they love cooking. For me, it’s risotto. I have cooked risotto for yearsand love cooking it; I find it so relaxing, and without tempting fate, it always comes out well. Today, I’ve chosen a roasted butternut squash Risotto recipe for you. It’s a big favourite in our household.
I learned to cook risotto from Georgio Locatelli’s Made in Italy book. The book is a classic guide to Italian cooking, and this heavyweight book has over seventy pages on Risotto, going into great detail about the technique, ingredients and recipes.
However, paragraph two of this epilogue about risotto gives away the secret to cooking the perfect risotto.
The magic happens at the end of the cooking; just before serving, add the butter and parmesan cheese; it is the beating in of these two ingredients that gives risotto fantastic creaminess. They call it the mantecatura which comes from the Spanish word for butter mantequilla.
The result of this process is that the risotto has a soft, loose texture, if you tilt the plate, the risotto ripples in waves, known as all’onda.
Trust me when I say Risotto is an easy dish, and although it does have a few stages, once you have mastered cooking risotto, you have added hundreds of risotto recipes to add to your repertoire.
The great thing with Risotto is it makes a simple midweek meal or a fancy dinner party dish.
Today this recipe also features Butternut squash. I love butternut squash, and it really goes so well with risotto. I prefer to roast the butternut squash first as it gives that nutty flavour once roasted; it really does bring this dish alive.
One final tip, before we get into the recipe, is most Italians will say the better the stock, the better the risotto. I fully understand that when making a quick midweek dinner, you don’t have time to make fresh chicken, fish or vegetable stock; trust me, I do rely on a stock cube when I’m in a hurry, but if I have time to make a stock, it really does add to the dish.
Butternut Squash Risotto
Print RecipeIngredients
- 1 x Small Butternut Squash cubed (2cms or about)
- Tsp of Fennel seeds
- Pinch of chilli flakes
- 300g Arborio Risotto Rice
- 1 onion (or 2 Banana shallots)
- 1 Stick of celery
- 1.25 litres of Vegetable stock
- 150ml White wine
- Extra Virgin olive oil
- 60g Freshely greated parmesan cheese
- Salt & Pepper
- 1 or 2 knobs of butter
Instructions
Remove skin & cut the Butternut Squash into 2cm cubes. Don’t be too precise; the butternut squash will shrink when roasted.
Heat oven to 180-200 degrees and add olive oil to a roasting pan. When the oven is hot, warm the oil in the pan and add the fennel seeds and chilli flakes with the cubed butternut squash. Coat the butternut squash with the oil and spices and season with salt & pepper.
Allow to cook for 20-25 minutes (turning every 8-10minutes) until the butternut squash is cooked. Remove the squash onto a plate and set aside.
Onto the Risotto;
Peel and finely chop the onion and garlic; trim and the celery.
Freshly grate the parmesan for later in the process.
In a pan, heat the oil and one small knob of butter over low heat; add the onions, garlic and celery, and fry gently for about 5 minutes or until softened but not coloured over a medium heat.
Add the rice and turn up the heat – the rice will begin to fry lightly, so keep stirring it. After 1 minute, it will look slightly translucent. Add the vermouth or wine; keep going — it will smell fantastic. Any harsh alcohol flavours will evaporate, leaving the rice with a tasty essence of wine.
Once the vermouth or wine has cooked into the rice, add your first ladle of hot stock and a good pinch of sea salt. Turn the heat down to a simmer so the rice doesn’t cook too quickly on the outside.
Keep adding ladlefuls of stock, stirring and almost massaging the creamy starch out of the rice, allowing each ladleful to be absorbed before adding the next. This will take around 15 minutes. Taste the rice — is it cooked? Add stock until the rice is soft but with a slight bite. Don’t forget to check the seasoning carefully. Add boiling water if you run out of stock before the rice is cooked.
Add the roasted butternut squash and gently stir, being careful not to break up the cubes of squash.
Remove the pan from the heat, add a knob of butter and the Parmesan, then stir well and let rest for a minute or so. As we mentioned earlier, this is the final but essential part of the process.
We are ready to serve in a final season with freshly ground black pepper and salt if needed.
Place a lid on the pan and allow it to sit for two minutes – this is the essential part of making the perfect risotto, as this is when it becomes outrageously creamy and oozy as it should be. Eat it as soon as possible while the risotto retains its beautiful texture.
In Italy, they will finish the risotto with a drizzle of virgin olive oil, something I like to do.
