1 cup of white wine or Vermouth1 medium onion ½ cup of parmesan cheese (grated) ½ butternut squash 3 tbsp soft goat cheese
2 ½ tbsp butter 1 tbsp olive oil Salt and pepper
- Peel the squash and cut into a small dice
- Season with salt and pepper, toss with a little oil, then put on a baking tray into an oven heated to about 400 for 20 minutes, until it is roasted on the outside and cooked within (this conveniently coincides with the cooking of the risotto – you can do this in advance, and warm the squash through before stirring into the risotto when needed)
- Dice the onion finely and fry in 1tbsp of olive oil and ½ tbsp of butter on a low heat until it has softened. Season it with salt and pepper – the salt will make it release water too, so it will be less likely to burn
- Pour / re-hydrate the stock into a pan and keep warm
- Once the onion is cooked, pour in the cup of rice and toss in the oil to coat.
- Add the glass of wine/Vermouth and let bubble for a moment so that the alcohol burns off.
- Add the stock one ladle-ful at a time, stirring constantly. Keep the heat fairly gentle, you want the stock to seep into the rice, rather than boil away into thin air
- Keep stirring, for about 20 minutes. You may not need all the stock, or, conversely, you may need to keep going with water until the rice is cooked – the texture should be fairly liquid – somewhere between a fork and a spoon.
- Add the butternut squash and stir in the parmesan cheese and the butter
- Take off the heat, crumble over the goat cheese, cover and let rest for 2 minutes
- Serve with a grinding of black pepper and more parmesan cheese.
This recipe originally appeared alongside the story of our trip to upstate New York, only to be defeated by ice (and wolves).