Creamy risotto simmered with fresh pumpkin. Slightly sweet and savory! I serve mine with toasted pumpkin seeds and crispy sage. Perfect fall meal!
Ingredients
1small pie pumpkin, roasted (about 2 cups pumpkin puree)
2tablespoonsolive oil
1small white onion, diced
2clovesgarlic, minced
1cuparborio rice
½cupdry white wine
4cupsvegetable or chicken stock, hot
1tablespoonunsalted butter
¼cupParmesan cheese, grated
Salt and pepper, to taste
Roasted pumpkin seeds, optional garnish
Crispy Sage:
2tablespoonsolive oil
Fresh sage leaves
Instructions
Turn oven to 350˚F. Cut pie pumpkin in half and place cut-side down on a baking sheet. Bake pie pumpkin for 30-40 minutes until it’s very tender. Then remove seeds and stringy flesh and scrape out edible flesh with a spoon. Mash in a bowl. You need about 2 cups of pumpkin. You can use canned pumpkin optionally.
In a large high-walled skillet, add olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and cook until they turn translucent – 4-5 minutes. Season with a pinch of salt.
Add arborio rice to the skillet and cook rice for 1-2 minutes. Then add white wine to deglaze pan.
When wine is mostly cooked off, add pumpkin puree and 1/2 cup hot stock. Stir together.
Continue slowly cooking risotto, adding hot stock in 1/2-3/4 cup batches. When skillet is dry, add more stock. You will use all the stock and maybe even need some extra water. Continue to cook risotto until it’s creamy smooth and risotto just has a tiny bite to it. It shouldn’t be completely mushy. It should take 30-40 minutes to cook the risotto.
At the very end of cooking, add butter and parmesan to the risotto and stir together. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve the risotto right away with crispy sage and pumpkin seeds. Optionally, you can cook the risotto in advance and reheat it with a splash of water in a skillet over low heat.
For crispy sage, add oil to a small skillet over medium heat. Add fresh sage leaves and fry for about a minute. Use tongs to flip leaves and fry for another 30 seconds or so. Remove leaves and let dry on a paper towel. They will get really crispy as they dry.