Fall is here. So is squash.

Time: 1 hour 40 minutes

Ingredient Availability: 5/5

Difficulty: 1/5

Some may see risotto as a fussy, fancy version of regular rice. You have to babysit it the whole time and it takes a lot longer than just boiling or steaming some rice. However, if the recipe is good, the end result just might be worth the extra effort. This one takes the effort even further by adding pureed butternut squash, pancetta, and fried sage. Let’s see if this recipe from Texture over Taste elevates the rice.

Key Ingredients and Omissions:

I didn’t leave out any of the ingredients that this recipe called for. One nitpick that I have about the ingredients list is that it just says to use a small butternut squash instead of giving a weight range. As you may know, squash come in a wide variety of sizes, so you can easily get one that’s too big or too small for this recipe. Other than that, the ingredients are pretty straight forward.

Tools:

• Sharp Knife

• Baking Sheet

• Food Processor or Blender

• Pots

Cooking Review:

Roasting Squash: 47 minutes

To start, I split the squash in half length wise and scooped out the seeds. Next, I lined a baking sheet with aluminum foil and sprayed it and the squash with cooking spray. The squash was added to the baking sheet with the cut side down. I roasted the squash for 40 minutes.

Prep onion and garlic: 16 minutes while squash roasted

While the butternut squash roasted, I chopped up the onion and sliced the garlic. I probably should have cut mine smaller so they really disappeared in the end, but it’s not too big of a deal.

Process Squash: 12 minutes

Once the squash was mostly soft, I scooped about as much as would fit into my food processor along with some chicken stock. The recipe says to use a blender, but I think a food processor makes more sense here. Plus, I just don’t have a blender large enough for this much stuff. I processed the squash and stock for about 5 minutes until pretty smooth.

Cooking Pancetta, sage, onion, and garlic: 18 minutes

It took about 11 minutes to render the fat and crisp up the pancetta, which was transferred to a plate to drain. The sage was added to the fat and fried until crisp for about 2-3 minutes. The sage was removed and the onion and garlic were added to the fat to cook for about 4 minutes until soft.

Cooking Rice: 15 minutes

While I was working on the previous step, I had a pot of chicken stock warming up on the stove. I added the rice to the pot with the onion and garlic, letting it toast for a half minute before pouring in the stock 1/3 cup at a time. After each addition, I stirred constantly until the rice had absorbed all of the liquid before adding the next 1/3 cup of stock. I kept doing this until the rice was soft to my liking.

Finishing: 4 minutes

To finish, I stirred in two cups of the butternut squash puree and then stirred in some cold butter. When I was ready to serve the risotto, I topped it with the pancetta, sage, and some grated parmigiano reggiano.

Analysis:

I really enjoyed the flavor that the butternut squash gives to this risotto. It’s a very smooth and balanced texture and flavor that works well with the tender rice. The pancetta was more chewy than crispy, but this just might be because I didn’t eat this until the day after, so I had to reheat everything. I didn’t mind that, though. Although the flavor is pretty nice and inoffensive, I think that it may have been even better if I had added a little more salt to amp up some of the more savory flavors from the garlic and chicken stock. Even without the extra salt, I think that this is a pretty solid recipe. If you like butternut squash, I think you’ll enjoy this risotto. It’s a great fall and winter side dish and I’m going to give it an 8/10.

P.S.

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