Butternut Squash Risotto

Mushrooms, nuts and herbs are the seasonal ingredients proposed for In the Bag: Cooking the Month of September hosted by A Slice of Cherry Pie. I love this challenge because it gives me a reason to search through my many cookbooks and magazines for something that has all the ingredients and is something I want to cook. I was having a hard time though and always seeming to find recipes with two out of the three. And just when I decided I was either just going to add the third ingredient to one of those recipes or make stuffed mushrooms, I found this recipe for Butternut Squash Risotto in the September/October 2010 issue of Clean Eating magazine. It has mushrooms (I used a chef's mix), sage and thyme for the herbs, and walnuts for the nuts. Yeah!

In the past I haven't been a big fan of making risotto. It takes long and you have to stand and stir over the hot stove which kind of sucks. But this time I had some patience and was ready to give it another try.

I have made something similar to this before - Butternut Squash Risotto with Pesto - but I didn't get how to work with squash at that time and used the frozen stuff. One of the appealing things about making this recipe is that it is published along side an article all about how to pick, prepare and cook various types of squash! And now it seems like such as waste of money to me to spend on the frozen already prepared stuff. There are so many funky looking types of squash out there and this fall I plan to play with them a bit and learn how to handle them and use them in foods. They are super cheap and super healthy!

Butternut Squash Risotto Serves 4. Makes about 6 cups. 3 cups peeled, diced fresh butternut squash Extra-virgin olive oil or olive oil cooking spray Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste 4 cups low-sodium organic chicken broth 1/2 cup onion, diced 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil 8 oz mushrooms, sliced (2 cups) 1 tbsp garlic, minced 1 cup arborio rice 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves 1 tbsp fresh sage, minced 1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas (thawed if frozen) 1/4 cup shredded fontina or Parmesan cheese 2 tbsp chopped walnuts, toasted

Preheat the over to 425°F. Toss squash with a little oil or mist with cooking spray; season with salt and pepper. Spread squash in an even layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until tender, about 25 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Set squash aside.

Meanwhile, bring broth to a simmer in a saucepan over medium heat; keep warm.

While broth is heating, saute onion in 1 tbsp oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat for 3 minutes. Add mushrooms and saute until they start to soften, 5 minutes. Add garlic and saute for 1 minute more. Add rice and stir to coat with oil and vegetables.

Add ½ cup warm broth; simmer and stir with a wooden spoon until liquid evaporates, about 2 minutes. Stir in another ½ cup warm broth; simmer, stirring occasionally, until liquid is almost all evaporated. Continue adding broth in ½-cup increments, adding more only after previous addition has been absorbed. Taste rice after three-quarters of the broth has been added. Rice is done when it's tender but still slightly firm and white in the very center (not chalky). Continue adding broth until only ½ cup remains.

Add thyme, sage, peas and cheese to pan with last ½ cup broth; stir until cheese melts, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat before all liquid is absorbed. Gently fold in cooked squash and walnuts. Season risotto with salt and pepper. Garnish with additional thyme, if desired, and serve warm.

Nutritional information per 1½-cup serving (as printed in magazine):
Calories: 359, Total Fat 9g, Sat. Fat: 2.5g, Monounsaturated Fat: 4g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 2.5g, Carbs: 60g, Fiber 6g; Sugars: 4g, Protein: 14g, Sodium 163 mg, Cholesterol: 8mg

Butternut Squash Risotto with Pesto

I'm not usually a big pesto fan, but here I think pesto is more like a secret ingredient! Using it as a base for sauteing onions made the kitchen smell wonderful. Also, I admit that I DID buy a real squash for this, but I also found frozen squash at Whole Foods. So when I couldn't figure out how to peel the butternut squash within 90 seconds, I tossed it and started defrosting the frozen stuff. Perfect!

I did not create this recipe but and I printed it out from Notepad so I have NO IDEA where it came from or who to attribute it to. I wish I knew though because it came out so well I want to know some more recipes from this source.

Butternut Squash Risotto with Pesto
Serves 6

3 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
¼ cup prepared pesto, divided
1 cup chopped fresh or frozen onion
1½ cups Arborio rice
3 cups fresh or frozen cubed butternut squash (1 small squash)

Bring broth and 2 cups water to a boil in large saucepan; turn off heat.

Heat 1 Tbsp. pesto in saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, and saute 6 minutes. Stir in rice, followed by 1/2 cup hot broth. When rice has absorbed broth, add another 1/2 cup. Continue adding broth in this manner 5 minutes.

Stir in squash, and season with salt and pepper. Resume adding broth, 1/2 cu pat a time until rice has absorbed all liquid. (This should take about 15 minutes.) Remove from heat, and stir in 1 Tbs. pesto. Spoon risotto into 6 bowls and top each with 1 tsp. pesto.

Slow-Cooker Sausage and Vegetable Risotto

I was really intrigued by this recipe for Slow-Cooker Sausage and Vegetable Risotto I found in the November, 2007 issue of Food and Wine Magazine. I absolutely love risotto, but I HATE standing over the hot stove stirring the rice. All the steam comes up in my face and I end up a big sweat box. So the thought of doing some prep work and then letting it all cook by itself in the slow-cooker was very novel to me. I was doubtful though . . . would the slow cooker turn out good risotto? Would it be moist enough? Would the rice end up tough?

The risotto turned out perfect! I was so excited that it turned out so well. It was rich and creamy just how risotto is supposed to be. I hope I can learn how to adapt other risotto recipes to be made in my slow cooker!

Slow-Cooker Sausage and Vegetable Risotto 6 servings 4 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth 3/4 pound sweet Italian sausages, casings removed 3 tablespoons water 5 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 small onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice 2 cups arborio rice (14 ounces) 1 medium zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch dice 1 tablespoon kosher salt 5 cups baby spinach (5 ounces) 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, plus more for serving Freshly ground pepper

Turn a 6- to 7-quart slow cooker to high. In a saucepan, bring the broth to a simmer. In a skillet, cook the sausage with the water over moderately high heat, breaking it up with a spoon until the water has evaporated and the sausage is browned, 10 minutes. Transfer the sausage to the slow cooker.

In the same skillet, melt 3 tablespoons of the butter. Add the onion and cook over moderate heat until the wine is reduced by half, 2 minutes. Stir in the rice and cook until all of the wine has been absorbed. Scrape the rice into the slow cooker. Add the hot broth, zucchini and salt and cover. Cook for 1 hour, stirring once halfway through. The risotto is done when the rice is al dente and most of the liquid has been absorbed. Turn off the slow cooker.

Stir the spinach into the risotto until just wilted. Stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and the grated cheese, season with pepper and serve immediately, passing additional cheese at the table.

#62: Pea and Mint Risotto

Market Fresh Recipes is really #62 on Food and Wine's 100 Tastes to Try for 2007 but they specifically mention Pea and Mint Risotto (recipe is online). The recipe is from Vegetable Harvest, the new book from Patricia Wells. I bought the book but this is the only think I have made from it so far.

I actually waited until the end of the year to make this because I didn't think I would like it. It sounded kind of boring to me . . . pea and mint? Didn't seem to special. How wrong I was!

While this recipe is probably best in the Spring, I used frozen peas and they were just as fresh and were perfect with this recipe. The fresh peas and mint combined with rich and creamy risotto is unbelievably good. I ate this as a main course but I think it would go fabulous with lamb chops! And the leftover were just as good as the original. I kept eating it for two days after I first made it. I usually don't eat leftover more than once but I this batch a total of 5 times!

Rachael Ray's Tuscan Cacciatore Risotto

I love risotto. I sometimes order it at restaurants, but I don't make it. It just takes too much time. So I don't get to enjoy the delights of risotto that often. But when I saw Rachael Ray's recipe for Tuscan Cacciatore Risotto featured in the December/January 2007 issue of Every Day with Rachael Ray, I knew I wanted to make it. This past long weekend was the perfect time.

And I am glad I did! This is definately a restaurant-quality recipe. The end result is rich, creamy and filled with delicious cold-weather flavors. While I was making the risotto, I nibbled on melon wrapped in prosciutto. It was the perfect fresh start before indulging in the rich risotto.

Quite a bit of rosemary is called for in this recipe. I am not a rosemary fan and I was hesitant. But I made the recipe according to Rachael's instructions and added 2 full Tbsp. And I'm glad I did because I think this is the first time I truly ENJOYED rosemary. You could definately taste it, but it blended perfectly with the red-wine, bits of chicken and rice. The balance was perfect.

Will I make it again? For myself, probably not. I had to stand over a steaming pot of aborio rice for about 45 minutes constantly stirring. And there are many other risotto recipes I would like to try if I am going to go through all of that work. However, I would definately make this for a special dinner for a small group. It sucks to be in the kitchen like that for entertaining, but if I ever do a risotto, I would choose this one. It is very impressive.