Roast Butternut Squash and Pancetta Risotto
Normally, we are not fans of Squash in Risotto as it tends to make the dish too sweet. However, necessity is the mother of invention and when Francis was recently catering for a large group, dinner for the staff was made last – and out of the remaining ingredients.
So, we had the Risotto ingredients to hand, the Pancetta from the Meat-eaters option and some Roast Squash from the Vegetarian option. Together they produced something really special.
Ingredients
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Method
Cut the Squash into 1″ cubes and coat with oil before roasting for approx 25 minutes at 180 degrees C – until the squash is soft. When the squash is cooked, mash half of it and leave the other half whole.
As with all Risotto, you need plenty of good quality Stock. In this case we used Turkey stock from the freezer (made from the Christmas Turkey carcass). Keep the stock hot in a saucepan.
Heat the Olive Oil in a large frying pan and fry the Pancetta until it colours a little. Remove it from the pan and set aside for now.
Add a little more oil to the pan and gently sweat the onions for about 5 minutes. Add the rice and cook in the oil for 1 minute.
Pour in the wine and keep stirring until it is absorbed.
Now it’s time to start adding the stock, one ladle at a time, to the rice. Stir each time and wait for the rice to absorb the stock before adding the next ladleful. This stage will take approximately 20 minutes. The rice should still have a little bite and the risotto as a whole should have a creamy consistency.
When the risotto is just done, stir though the Squash and the cheese. Add a little more stock at this stage if the Risotto looks too dry or stodgy.
Season well and scatter over some parsley just before serving.