Roast pumpkin and sage risotto with blue cheese

Serves:

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 500g pumpkin, peeled, deseeded and cut into 1cm cubes
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 cups Arborio rice
• 125mL white wine
• 1.5L good quality chicken or vegetable stock (gluten-free)
• 2 tablespoons fresh sage leaves, finely chopped
• 12 sage leaves, extra
• 100g freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 100g blue cheese (optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 180C. Place pumpkin on a baking tray, drizzle with one teaspoon of the oil, toss to coat and bake for 20 minutes or until cooked.

Place stock in a saucepan and heat until simmering. Heat remaining oil in a large heavy based frypan at medium heat, cook the sage leaves for about 30 seconds until crisp.

Remove leaves and drain on paper towel. Add onion to the pan and fry for two minutes, add garlic and cook for another two minutes.

Turn up the heat, add Arborio rice and stir constantly for two minutes until heated through.

Pour in wine, there will be a bit of a sizzle, cook until wine has almost evaporated.

Add half the roasted pumpkin and chopped sage leaves. Add a soup ladle (about half a cup) of hot stock to the frypan, turn the heat down to a simmer and stir until stock absorbed, then add another ladle of stock.

Continue adding stock, stirring and allowing each ladleful to be absorbed before adding the next. The risotto will take 15-20 minutes to cook.

As always with risotto, make sure you use a nice white wine and enjoy a glass while stirring! When the rice is nearly soft, add the remaining pumpkin, parmesan and blue cheese (if using).

Stir gently to combine, serve immediately topped with a few fried sage leaves.

Notes:

• If the risotto is a bit gluggy, add more stock (or boiled water if you are out of stock).
• Adding half the pumpkin at the start of cooking gives the rice a lovely orange tinge and then you add the remainder at the end to add a bit of texture and visual interest!
• The blue cheese is your call. My husband can detect blue cheese at 100 paces, so I divide the risotto in half and add the blue (50g) to my share its a great way to ensure blue-phobics do not t polish off the leftovers.
• Recipe created by Melissa Hughes for Kidspot.

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Serving Suggestions

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