Honeynut Squash Oven Risotto

It has been a few years since I last posted here. In the meanwhile I have had a few jobs, moved upstate, had a kid, and somewhere along the way lost the part of myself that was brave enough to put my food in my little corner of the internet. I was never really brave enough to write much of myself into these posts, but I think that will change this go around. Don’t worry, I am not going to write pages of monologues that you have to scroll through to get to the recipe, but I might just share a little more of myself. Sharing myself might help me come back to myself. I didn’t lose myself in motherhood but I did in adulthood. The endless circling back and visiting that deck, and assessing the metrics to pay the bills dimmed the creativity and wonder that defined who I knew myself as.

There will be typos and very bad grammer, we are going to have to come to an agreement that this is ok and move on. I do not have time to copyedit, nor do I care to.

Speaking of the endless merry-go-round of work and chores, let us get to dinner.

These days, I have a job and a toddler and time is very very limited so I can’t stand around stirring risotto for half an hour. A recipe that I used to think of as quick and easy, if a bit tedious, is one that is no longer even possible in the level of committment it requires. That does not stop me from WANTING risotto. It is a comfort food, deliciously squidgy and warm, risotto is a warm hug in a bowl. So, this week, with my husband out of town, the winter temps dropping, and my hands very full I decided to try something Ina Garten apparently does and make risotto in the oven.

This whole thing took about an hour but most of it was hands off - which is exaclty what I needed.

Ingredients:

1 cup of arborio rice

4 cups of stock (I used turkey stock made from the leftover bones of the smoked turkey we made for thanksgiving)

1 large yellow onion diced

2 small honeynut squash, peeled and diced

5 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1/4 to 1/3 cup of parmigiano reggiano (measure with your heart)

Salt and pepper to taste (this will vary dramatically based on the saltiness of your stock, so taste your food and adjust. I used probably around a teaspoon of salt)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 (if you forgot to do this like I did, add 5 minutes to your cooking time) and get out a large dutch oven. The enameled cast iron kind is perfect here.

Heat your dutch oven on the stovetop over medium heat, add the olive oil and two tablespoons of butter. When the butter has melted, add your diced onion and turn the heat to low.

Cook the onion until the pieces are translucent and turning golden brown in places. If you ignore them a few times and the corners catch and go a touch past golden - don’t worry it really doesnt matter. This took 5-10 minutes for me, which incidentally is as long as it took me to peel and chop the two small honeynut squash (with help from little hands scattering everything.. everwhere). Season with salt and pepper.

Add the honeynut squash and cook for a minute or two.

While the squash cooks for a minute, throw the stock in the microwave so that it isn’t cold when you put it in with your rice.

Add the dry arborio rice and cook for a minute or two, stir if you can.

Add the stock, and give everything a stir, the put the lid on your dutch oven and put it in your oven.

Set a timer for 45 minutes - in my case this means repeatedly yell at Alexa until she finally notices and sets a timer.

When the timer is up, pull the risotto out of the oven, pop the top off and the remaining butter and cheese in. Stir vigorously for a couple minutes to release some if the starches in the rice. Check your seasoning - add salt and pepper if you need to.

And that is it. Dinner is done. One pot was used. Clean up is easy. Add a protein if you want, I served it with lamb meatballs.

There is only one picture because I was not planning on blogging but.. here we are.

Hello again, eat some rice.