This recipe is from the Naked Chef, by Jamie Oliver. It has rather a lot of ingredients, but the flavour is amazing, so it is really worth it.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 butternut squash or onion squash
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp dried thyme leaves (or add fresh thyme while you are cooking the risotto)
- 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
- 1/2 tsp hot chilli flakes, or two small dried chillies
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 litre hot vegetable or chicken stock
- another tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 1/2 head of celery, finely chopped
- 2 more cloves of garlic
- 400g good risotto rice
- 100ml dry white vermouth or dry white wine
- 70g butter
- 100g parmesan
- 2 heaped spoonfuls of mascarpone
METHOD:
- Turn the oven up to 200C and start to prepare the spices. Put the dry herbs and spices and the salt and pepper into a spice grinder, or grind with a pestle and mortar. Once it is all in a fine powder, crush the garlic, and pound it in, and mix to a paste with the olive oil.
- Next, prepare the squash. Peel it if you are using a butternut squash and you don’t like the skin. Cut length wise into eights (half, half and half again) and scoop out the seeds. Rub the squash all over with the spice mixture, and lay it out in a small roasting dish. Roast for thirty minutes in the middle of the oven.
- The roasted squash is just lovely as it is, and if you wish, you could add chickpeas to the recipe. For the risotto, set it aside to cool, and then chop finely. Chop one half more finely.
- Make sure your stock is good and hot to make a good risotto.
- In the risotto pan, head olive oil, and then gently cook the onion and celery for 3 to four minutes, before adding the garlic. Once the vegetables look soft, add the rice and turn up the heat a little. Continue to cook until the rice is turning translucent. Keep stirring so the rice doesn’t scorch or stick.
- When the rice is ready add the wine or vermouth and the thyme leaves, and keep stirring. Once the alcohol has boiled off, start adding the stock and the roughly chopped half of the chopped squash. Add the stock slowly, a ladleful at a time, and keep checking the flavour and texture of the rice. I found the squash quite salty, so you don’t need to add masses more. Wait until each addition of stock has been absorbed by the rice before pouring more in. The rice will be ready when it is tender but still with a hint of a bite to it.
- When you think it is just about ready, turn off the heat, and stir in the rest of the pumpkin, the butter, mascarpone and parmesan.
This makes four very large or six modest portions.