risotto con zucca (squash risotto)

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Ingredients

• 1 large squash (onion squash works well, butternut will do), peeled and deseeded
• oregano (fresh is recommended, dried will do)
• 2-6 segments of garlic depending on taste
• olive oil
• 400g risotto rice (carnarolli or arborio are great) - use less if you have a smaller squash
• 40ml sherry or 75ml white wine
• 900ml vegetable stock (bouillon is great)
• 40g butter (unsalted is supposed to be better but I've used salted)
• 4-6 shallots, peeled and chopped.
• 1 or 2 small red chillis, deseeded and chopped (I just use chilli powder, it's fine)
• some pepper and maybe salt (depends on your butter and stock - you don't want this too salty)

This is a comforting and filling risotto, which will take a load of chilli and garlic if you like that sort of thing. You can make it milder if you prefer. Ideal for a wet autumn night - or even after a rotten day in summer when you really need cheering up!

Risotto has a reputation for being difficult, but I think it's pretty simple so give it a try! It would go well with a fresh white wine, or beer (lager best probably) or a citrus soft drink eg lemonade. Wait... everything goes well with beer :)

I got this recipe from a Waitrose magazine, but have adapted and simplified it slightly. It should serve 4 unless you are really hungry - it depends on how big your squash is!

1. Heat a roasting tin/tray in a 200°C oven.
2. Peel, deseed and chop the squash into chunks. (When I've used onion squash I didn't peel it and the peel was actually OK to eat... but I think butternut squash needs to be peeled!)
3. Put squash and garlic segments (unpeeled) into roasting tin, drizzle olive oil over (not too much) and add a good wodge of your oregano in there too. Roast for 20-25 minutes or until squash is tender and starting to brown (sweeten).
4. While the squash is roasting, prepare your hot bouillon/stock. Once made, the stock is best kept at a simmer on the hob rather than left to cool in a jug. This helps with the risotto.
5. Melt your butter in a large pan - I have a 30cm flat-bottomed frying pan that works well. Fry the shallots and chilli (if using fresh) for 5-10 minutes on a low heat.
6. When the shallots are ready, add in your rice and stir it in well so that all the rice gets coated in butter. Leave to cook for 1 minute, then add in your sherry or wine and bring to a good bubble for a couple of minutes.
7. Then turn the heat down and add your first couple of ladles of stock - you don't want to drown risotto rice. If you're keeping your stock at a simmer then this should start bubbling away quite soon. The mixture should be kept gently bubbling, not vigorously - you need to give the rice time to cook. (But - first time I cooked this I had the heat too low, in which case the rice takes ages to cook - so beware!)
8. Don't forget to check on your squash in the oven. If it's done, then turn the oven off and leave the squash to cool off a bit.
9. Back to the rice. Once the liquid (stock) has been pretty much all absorbed into the rice, you can add another couple of ladles of stock and stir well. Repeat - remembering to wait till the liquid has been absorbed each time before adding more - until the rice is soft and swollen. You shouldn't run out of stock, but if you do and the rice still isn't cooked then just add a bit of water instead and repeat till it is :)
10. Once your rice is ready to go, you can tip in the squash and garlic (you probably want to remove the skin off the garlic), and all the lovely herby oil, and gently stir it into the rice. Whack in some black pepper to taste, and once it's all mixed and warmed through, serve immediately.

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  alicetwain says

  There is a huge number of ingredients that have no place in risotto, especially in a squash risotto that's supposed to taste essentially of squash, that's to say sweetish. Remove garlic, reduce shallots to 1, throw away all chilies, pepper and salt (the salt in the stock, be it vegetable or meat, and the cheesde will do the trick). The rice must be toasted for longer than one minute, until it ecomes translucent and "whistles" and the stock must be added all at once to keep the risotto from sticking, and the risotto must be stirred only at the end, when it's the time to "mantecare" it with butter and cheese.

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  fbarton says

  Hi Alice, thanks for the comments. I think you are being a bit harsh - who's to say what does and doesn't go in a risotto? In my recipe you can still taste the squash, I think it goes well with garlic though. The shallots just disappear really, so i don't know about their place in this recipe. I have said to be careful with the salt, i agree that too much salt makes risotto hard work. I think your alterations would probably make the risotto a very bland dish - "sweetish" as you call it. I like the garlic and chilli hit, personally. But I'll take some of your tips on board, particularly your tip about toasting the rice for longer. And what's this about adding the stock all at once? *Everyone* knows that you add a bit until it's absorbed by the rice, and then add a bit more until it's absorbed etc. Don't they? Isn't that the first law of risotto rice? I shall experiment!

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  alicetwain says

  Mayber I can say things like that because I was born and raised in the place in italy where risotto was created and where you can find the real risotto, Lombardy. Rosotto must be "bland" or rather mild and delicate in flavor., adding spices, too much salt and other stuff makes it too salty and unpleasant. It turns riotto into waht we call "food for drinking". Risotto must be extremely delicate in flavor, all of them, with just one or two characterizing elements. The same principles can be used in cooking about anything Italian: Itlaian cuisine is essentially simple, rustic. People used whatever little they had at home to cook, and often this didn't sum up to much. besides, your recipe violates another of the basic pronciples of traditional Italian cuisine: regionality. You add foods and flavors of several regions, regions that didn't even belong to the same country or speak the same lanaguage until a century and a half ago. Squash (zucca) is essentially a northern food, rather a foo...

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  yongfook says

  I like to think that all dishes are open to adaptation. Perhaps if fbarton had claimed this to be a 100% authentic risotto recipe, we could dispute it. However, adding different ingredients and adjusting flavours to something we like the taste of - isn't that is what cooking is all about? It's certainly not something to get angry at another food lover over.

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  theory says

  I sometimes make risotto with brown Japanese rice with the addition of some soy milk. Somebody call the police...

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  alicetwain says

  yongfook: here we have two problems: one is technical: to add stock a ladle a time and stirring prioduces mush, not risotto. Despite this being the most populqr technique worldwide, it's not the RIGHT technique to make a good risotto, where the rice is cooked uniformously and al dente while not sticking to the pan. Secondly, here we have a recipe thatìs been codified by tradition. Sure, you can screw around with it, but what you can't do is call it with a name that is associated with a traditional one. Actually, there is a third problem with the recipe: this is an Italian recipe, but the garlic content of fbarton's intepertation would make any Italian cringe in horror! Despite the legends, we Italians use garlic very sparingly: most don't even add it to pesto!

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  honeybunch says

  fbarton's risotto tastes amazing! i love this recipe. quite frankly who cares if a recipe is 'authentic' or 'real', aren't we interested in how it tastes? if people hadn't mixed ideas, experimented and developed then the world would be a very different place indeed (and i'm not just talking cooking here) and i'd venture to add that alicetwain's 'proper' risotto wouldn't have come into existence in the first place!! how boring to just stick to one person's idea of what is authentic, of what is right (if there's such a thing)... let's have some fun and be a bit individual!

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  fbarton says

  Interesting discussion. I sympathise with alicetwain - how frustrating is it in life when other people do things wrong! - and she has provided some helpful tips eg about toasting the rice. And there is value in authenticity - the Italians are the best people to make Italian dishes (although I'm sure we can all think of exceptions to this rule, worldwide). On the other hand, I disagree that "risotto is risotto" and there's by definition one codified way to do it, or you can't call it risotto. There isn't a law about this. And I feel hurt that as a newcomer to the site my first recipe submission was trashed in what I perceived to be an insensitive and aggressive way. One irony is that the recipe is not my recipe, it is copied* (slightly simplified) from a cookery magazine written by an Italian woman. The garlic is her idea. As is the method of cooking the rice. As is the name of the recipe. Alice, you can disagree with her if you like, but I think this is a strong indication that ev...

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  fbarton says

  <comment truncated> ...even among Italian women, there is more than one way to do it. * I am sorry if this site is supposed to be for original recipes only. I only posted it up here because a friend of mine (honeybunch) wanted it from me.

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  theory says

  I liked your recipe, dude... Hope this experience hasn't put you off. This is a good site.

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  Bundolo says

  I had to say something when I saw this discussion. When I was young, my mother used to make risotto exactly like Alice tells us. My mother's a really good cook (not by profession) and I always liked her risotto. When I moved out, I started to teach myself all kinds of recipes, one of which was my mothers risotto. At some point, I stumbled upon the kind of risotto that fbarton describes here and simply fell in love. After I learned of this method I've never made any other kind of risotto (I sometimes get the other kind at my mothers house when I visit). For me, creamy risotto is the only "real" risotto. For others, it's the other way around. Whatever its origin, I think it's ok to call both versions risotto, since half of Italy and most of the world makes it this way. Don't let go of your principles: you don't have to make your risotto this way! Just don't try to ruin it for others. Post your own recipe and link it as a suggestion!

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  dosdne says

  With respect to everyone commenting, I find the too purist approach to food rather annoying. This is not a site about the ultimate recipe, but about how different people cook differently. So if Italians believe they are the only ones who have the right to cook risotto, pasta or pizza, or any other nationals for that sake, I do not believe that is what cooking is about. Nice recipe btw!

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