Roasted Butternut Squash Risotto

I make this with butternut squash some of the time as these are always a great price at Aldi and sometimes at Lidl too. However, we have a glut of pumpkins and squashes in the garden just now and so I made this last week with a Crown Prince squash and it was absolutely delicious! So, be brave and tinker with the recipe...it can take it!

Serves 2


400g Butternut squash - cubed
200g Arborio rice
2 small shallots - finely chopped
3 cloves garlic - pressed
1 litre chicken stock
1 bay leaf
fresh finely chopped flat leaf parsley
pinch paprika
salt & black pepper
75g parmesan cheese
25g butter
Olive oil

METHOD

Preheat oven to 200ºC/180ºfan/Gas 6
Place cubed butternut squash into ovenproof dish and sprinkle with paprika, drizzle with olive oil and bake until tender
When butternut squash is almost ready you can begin the risotto process...
Add your chicken stock to small saucepan with the bay leaf and parsley, keep on a low heat.
Put 2 tblsp olive oil in frying pan on the heat and sauté the onion and garlic for a few mins until transparent, then stir in the rice.
Add 1 ladle of the stock, stir continuously making sure that you scrape all the flavours from the bottom of the frying pan, they are much too delicious to leave behind! The rice will absorb the stock as it cooks,so just repeat adding stock a ladle at a time until there is just a tiny bit of stock left.
Now is the time to add the squash...stir it in gently, making sure you don't break up the beautiful flesh as it is quite fragile.
Warm some pasta dishes, these are ideal for this lovely dish.... ;-)
When there is virtually no stock left, remove the pan from the heat and stir in one third of the parmesan.

Divide this delectable feast between the four dishes and sprinkle with the remaining parmesan.
Season with black pepper (salt is probably not necessary as the cheese and stock are quite salty) and serve with a lovely leafy green salad...yum!