Interested by a tasting in a friends’ wine shop (Arcioni) where wines and risottos were plentiful, we tried again to cook one of the main dishes of the beautiful evening: risotto with pumpkin and rosemary; a recipe that finds its origins in the regions of northern Italy.
A simple dish if you already master the art of risotto, or a good reason to start learning its secrets.
Ingredients for 2 people:
- 1 carrot (for the broth)
- parsley (the stems for the broth, the chopped leaves for the risotto)
- 1/2 Onion (for the broth)
- celery (for the broth)
- 2 ounces of rice
- 50 grams of butter (20 for sautéing, 30 for creaming)
- 40 grams of parmesan
- pepper
- a drop of milk
- 1/2 shallot
- White wine
- 2 ounces of pumpkin (weighed without peel)
- rosemary
As with all risottos, start with the broth: take a pan, fill it with cold water and boil half an onion, the parsley stems, a stick of celery and a carrot (then if you want to be serious you can add the aromatic sachet, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms etc.). When the broth is ready (at least 30 minutes), salt it. If you are lazy or don’t have time you can use a dice (but I didn’t write that).
Chop the rosemary and place the diced pumpkin in the oven at 180° for 25 minutes, sprinkling it with rosemary and salt.
Chop the shallot and start with the risotto: put the butter in a saucepan and when it is hot, pepper and brown the shallot, when the shallot has browned a little (don’t let it burn!) add the rice, let it cook for about a minute and blended with white wine. Add the filtered broth and cook, topping up if it dries out too much.
Remove the pumpkin from the oven and blend half of it with a drop of milk. Add the blended half to the risotto and a few minutes after cooking the part of the pumpkin still in cubes.
Turn off the heat with the grain of rice still al dente and with a good layer of broth which should allow you to make the legendary wave. Add the butter and grated parmesan and proceed with creaming.
A sprinkling of parsley and serve while still hot…
