Sunday, November 19, 2006

Risotto con zucca e ragu'

I bought a butternut squash some time ago, and I though I would do a good use of it if I made some risotto with it. One of my favorite risotto is made with pumpkin and sausage. It's similar to what Marco made with pasta - I have a picture in this post, but she used to make it with rice and mix the sausage with the rice.
I didn't have a sausage handy so I decided I would make it with my ragu sauce that I told you about recently, and that I froze in various aliquots.
So here it is!
Risotto con zucca e ragu' (rice with butternut squash and ragu')
Bake a butternut squash for ~40 min, turning it from time to time. Let the squash cool down, peel it and cut it in big pieces. Saute one onion finely cut, in a bit of olive oil. Add the squash to it and saute for a few minutes. Add 1 cup of ragu sauce. Add 1 cup of rice (I used whole rice) and add 1/2 tbsp salt. Cover with water (about 1" above the level of the rice), cover with a lid and cook for ~40 min or until the rice is soft. Check from time to time in order to make sure there's still enough water, and add if necessary. Taste and adjust with salt. Add black pepper and serve with a generous amount of grated parmesan.
For Susan in Italy from Porcini Chronicles, who recently posted a nice recipe of pasta with pumpkin and was curious about the variation with sausage: if you want to use sausage instead of ragu, and you want to make risotto: cook the sausage in a separate pan, cut it into pieces and add it to the rice about 5-10 min before the rice is done, so it gives some of its flavor to the rice. My mom used to serve it with some of the sausage in pieces into the rice, and half of a whole sausage on top of it. :)

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