Another new recipe – this one Butternut Squash Risotto with Crispy Pancetta. I can never get enough of butternut squash and sage flavors together, so this recipe sounded right up my alley. And I had some ventreche (french pancetta, we learned this weekend) leftover from a recipe George made over the weekend that I thought needed to be used or tossed.
My mistake was that I forgot a few things about making risotto: 1) you can not do anything else while making risotto. I came home from a crazy day at work needing to continue to monitor my work email into the evening. Oh, and I have a 5 year old who needs attention all the time, and needed to eat (something other than the risotto). In other words, the interruptions to my stirring were plenty. Luckily I made it in my Le Crueset pot, the one pot I own to which nothing sticks permanently (best cookware ever), or I might have had a bit of a mess to clean up. 2) risotto takes TIME. I came home from work later than usual (see aforementioned crazy day), and had to cut apart the squash (which didn’t have any seeds – is that weird?) and chop the pancetta before I could even begin the constant rice stirring. Let’s just say that I skipped both the onion (just couldn’t make time to chop anything else) and the last cup of chicken broth (because I didn’t want to stir and wait anymore). I reduced the butter a bit because man, that’s a lot of butter.
Verdict: Well, since I was the only one who ate it (the other members of my family had given up and eaten while I cooked), you only get my opinion. I think that it could have used a bit more broth (my fault for skipping the last cup), but the flavors were really good. Who can go wrong with sage, butter, butternut squash, pancetta and parmesan cheese? The recipe was time-consuming, but easy – if I’d been able to just keep stirring! I’m looking forward to the leftovers!