One of my favourite meals at the end of Summer and in the Autumn is one I found in the best vegetarian recipe book in the world – Paradiso Seasons by Denis Cotter.
I love cooking Risotto because it gives me a rare chance to open a bottle of white wine. Lynds is not that keen on white so we don’t open one that often, but I’ll stand there stirring the rice, adding some wine to the pan while merrily glugging away at what’s left.
The flavours and textures in this meal are a real delight.
The meal calls for a sweet squash like butternut. We do grow them but they ripen a bit later. We also grow sunshine squash, which we’ve discovered to be excellent in every way.
The squash needs to be cut into bite sized chunks and roasted while you prepare the rest of the meal. Caramalise the edges please!
Start by softening your leek (in our case, the first one of the season) in a risotto pan. Then add your rice and some butter and cook in the usual way – white wine and stock.
When it’s ready add a decent amount of Parmesan and some finely chopped sage. Then gently stir in your roasted squash and serve with Parmesan shavings on top. And a glass of decent white wine. Awesome!
