Pancetta, Sage & Butternut Risotto

Serves:

4-6 People

Ingredients:

Pancetta, Sage & Butternut Risotto
2 litres well-flavoured chicken or vegetable stock
2 tbsp olive oil
10 sage leaves
5 slices of pancetta or bacon, chopped into small pieces
3 shallots, nicely chopped
1 ½ cups risotto rice (Vialone Nano, Carnaroli, Arborio)
½ cups dry white wine
2 cups diced butternut pumpkin ( ½  cm dice)
½ cup grated parmesan, plus extra to serve
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Heat the stock to simmering in a large saucepan.
In a large deep sauté pan or saucepan, heat the olive oil and fry the sage leaves for 1 minute, until they are just dark green. Remove the leaves and drain on a paper towel.
Add the pancetta to the pan and stir until nicely browned. Remove and drain on paper towels.
Add the shallots to the pan and soften for a minute, then add the rice. Stir to coat each grain in the oily mixture.
Turn up the heat and add the wine. Stir until all the liquid evaporates. Add the hot stock, a ladle at a time, continuing to stir as the rice absorbs the stock. When half the stock has been used, add the diced butternut and stir as you continue to add the rest of the stock. After about 25 minutes, taste and check if the rice is cooked to your liking. If you use all the stock before the rice is cooked to your liking, you can add a little more stock or hot water.
Crumple or chop half the sage leaves and add to the risotto with the crisp pancetta. Stir in the parmesan and season to taste with salt and pepper. It will need quite generous seasoning so don’t be mean! Garnish with the remaining sage leaves and serve with a block of parmesan to grate or shave over.


Recipe courtesy of Jo Seagar, from her book 'Italia'