Honeynut Squash Risotto
A perfect Fall risotto!
Ingredients
- 3 Honeynut Squash
- 1 Shallot sub: yellow onion or leeks
- 1 cup Arborio Rice
- 1/3 cup White Wine
- 5 cups Vegetable Broth
- 2 tbsp Butter separated
- 3 Sage leaves
- Olive oil for Sauting
- 1/2 cup Toasted Walnuts, chopped
- Salt & Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. If you have a roast function use that.
- Cut the honey nut squash in half. If you are using roasted honey nut squash, as a garnish, cube, 1/2 of one of the squash. Season everything with salt, pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Please cut side down and the cubes onto a baking sheet and roast at 400°F until fork tender, about 20 minutes. Make sure to stir the cubes occasionally to caramelize evenly. Those may cook faster so you need to watch them, once they are forktender take them out.
- In the meantime, dice the shallot and toast the walnuts. Also heat up your vegetable broth.
- Into a pan heat a 1/4 inch of olive oil, add the sage leaves in for 30 seconds and remove to a paper towel. Reserve the oil to drizzle onto the finished dish.
- Once the honeynut squash is fork, tender, scoop it out into a container and add about 3/4 of a cup of vegetable broth. Using an immersion blender, purée the squash until it becomes a thick purée not too loose. If you need to add more vegetable broth do so.
- To a pan add 1 tablespoon of butter and a drizzle of olive oil along with the diced shallots. Sauté until translucent. Add in the arborio rice and toast for a few minutes, stirring continuously. Then deglaze the pan with white wine, cook for a few minutes to cook out the alcohol.
- Make sure your vegetable broth is on a low simmer next to your pan. Add a ladle at a time of vegetable broth, stirring continuously as the rice absorbs the warm vegetable broth you will add more ladles until the rice is cooked to your liking.
- Once the rice is cooked, add in about a cup of honeynut squash purée. If there is any leftover, this can be frozen for the next time you make this dish. Stir the purée in and warm through so that it combines with the rice.
- Turn the heat off, add in 1 tablespoon of butter and about a quarter cup of grated parmigiano Reggiano. Stir to combine.
- Add the risotto to a plate, and then add your toppings. The toppings are optional, the risotto is delicious even without the toppings. You can just add more grated cheese on top and it's perfect!
- The toppings I like to add to this dish or as follows: Cubed and caramelized honeynut squashToasted walnuts Fried sage leaves A drizzle of sage oil