Another fall favorite for me is butternut squash.  I love it’s bright color and the many different dishes that you can make with this winter squash.  Soups, baked, pureed, added to salad, roasted, and my personal favorite, in risotto.  While squash can be a little difficult to peel and chop (make sure you have a good knife), it’s totally worth the prep time.

When you’re selecting your squash at the farmer’s market, you don’t wat one that’s too big; it needs to still be hard on the outside, feel heavy and not have too many blemishes on the skin.  Squash should be stored in a cool dark place and they’ll keep for a couple of weeks if you do this.  Don’t put squash in the refrigerator.

This week I made butternut squash risotto, a great side dish or main course.  It’s delicious and tastes so rich, but it’s healthy and low in fat.  When you eat risotto, it feels like you’re really indulging but it’s just naturally that delicious.  Of course there’s a little cheese added at the end, but other than that, low fat ingredients.

Don’t be intimidated by risotto.  While you do have to keep an eye on it and stir it frequently, I really enjoy that part of the process.  Just pour yourself a glass of wine, relax, and grab your spoon!

Butternut squash risotto:

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups butternut squash (I used two smaller sized squash), seeds removed, peeled and cubed into ½ inch cubes
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, mined
• 2 T. olive oil
• ½ cup white wine
• 3 ½ cups chicken (or vegetable) broth
• 1 cup Arborio rice
• 1 t. salt
• ½ t. pepper
• parmesan cheese (a lot of recipes call for ¼ to ½ cup but that’s too much for me.  I just sprinkle and eyeball it.  I don’t like the cheese to overpower the other flavors.)

Put olive oil in a large sauce pan and heat on medium high.  Add onion and garlic, stir occasionally, and sauté until onions become soft and clear, about 5 minutes.  Lower heat just a little, to medium and add squash.  Let continue to cook for another 5 minutes while stirring.  (See, there’s a lot of stirring here!)

Add rice to the pan and stir constantly for two minutes.  Add the white wine and stir until most of the liquid is absorbed.  Add salt and pepper.  Lower the heat to med-low and add 1 cup of chicken broth.  Stir.  For the rest of the recipe, you stir and continue to add broth 1 cup at a time, as liquid is absorbed in the pan.  Continue stirring so that the rice doesn’t burn on the bottom of the pan.  You may need to use a little more chicken broth than 3 ½ cups, but you can judge by tasting.  Risotto’s ready when it’s softened and tender but not mushy.  (I find it always takes a little longer than the box says.  Usually about 30 minutes once I add the rice.) Go with what taste/texture you like best.  Stir in parmesan cheese right before serving.

A note about risotto: I like to do this process slowly, but if you’re in a time crunch, it’s fine to turn up the heat a little as long as you’re being very attentive to stirring.  Also, if you’re having people over and don’t want to be attached to the stove, you can turn the heat on really low (you have to have more time to make risotto this way) once the broth heats up.  Then you don’t need to stir it as often and the risotto basically cooks itself, slowly.

The squash adds great color to the risotto so it looks pretty on the plate too.  Beautiful by itself in a hearty bowl or on a plate with a simple protein and fresh salad.  Enjoy!

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 8:18 am and is filed under cooking, recipe, vegetarian. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.