Butternut Squash and Sage Risotto

Ingredients

• 1 butternut squash, half diced small and half in chunks
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• a small handful of sage leaves
• 70 g butter
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 320 g arborio or carnaroli rice
• 120 ml dry white wine
• 1.2 litres hot vegetable stock
• 70 g parmesan, grated
• a grating of nutmeg

Method

1. Roast half, dice half

   Roast the chunks with 2 tbsp of the oil at 200°C until caramelised, and keep the small dice raw. The roasted half goes in mashed for sweetness and colour, the raw dice cooks in the rice and keeps its shape — one squash doing two jobs.

   30 min

2. Crisp the sage

   Fry the sage leaves in a knob of the butter for 20 seconds until they stiffen, then lift them out onto paper. They go from crisp to bitter and black almost instantly, so watch them.

   1 min

3. Soften and toast

   Cook the onion in half the remaining butter until translucent, add the diced squash and nutmeg, then the rice, and stir for two minutes until the grains look glassy at the edges.

   12 min

4. Wine, then stock

   Add the wine and let it disappear, then the hot stock a ladle at a time, stirring and waiting for each to be nearly absorbed before the next.

   18 min

5. Mash the roasted squash in

   About five minutes from the end, mash the roasted chunks roughly and stir them through. Added earlier they dissolve completely and the risotto turns to baby food.

6. Beat and rest

   Off the heat, beat in the last of the butter and the parmesan hard, rest two minutes covered, then serve with the crisp sage crumbled over.

   2 min