Recipe for Oven-baked Butternut Squash and Rosemary Risotto
Serves 3 – 4
For added mushroominess add the soaking water from the dried mushrooms to the stock. If you are trying to cut back a little go easy on the parmesan and actually use a tablespoon to measure the olive oil :-)
250g Brown rice (ideally a sturdy short grained Italian variety rather than something like a brown basmati rice)
4 Shallots, finely chopped
Celery, one stick, finely sliced
600g Butternut squash, peeled and chopped into 2cm cubes
1 Red pepper, cut into 2cm square pieces
1 springs of rosemary
Dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in hot water for 30 minutes then drained and chopped
1 tbsp Olive oil
600ml hot vegetable stock
2 tsp truffle oil (optional but good)
A couple of handfuls of grated parmesan
Black pepper
Put the oven on to heat up to 160 C, 325 F, Gas mark 3.
Using a fairly large pan with a lid (one that you can transfer to the oven), fry the shallots and celery in the olive oil over a medium heat for about five minutes, being careful not to brown them.
After the five minutes are up pour in the rice and stir about for a couple of minutes until all of the rice is coated and glossy.
Add the squash, peppers and rosemary to the pan and pour over stock. Put a lid on and transfer to the oven.
Bake for 45 minutes but check it at 30 minutes so that you can add a little bit more hot water if it looks like it is drying out. It won’t look good at 30 minutes but by 45 minutes it should look a bit more sticky and risotto like.
Taste to check that the rice is soft (hopefully it will be soft and gooey round the edges but with a tiny bit of bite) and that the stock has nearly all been absorbed.
Season with black pepper and stir through the parmesan and truffle oil. Serve with a little of all three for people to add to their taste.