Oven Roasted Butternut Squash Risotto

This is the perfect dish for a cold, rainy day when you need something to counteract the misery outside. Also: any other day. The roasted butternut squash gets caramelized on the outside and soft on the inside, and adds a hint of sweetness that matches up nicely with the richness from the butter and vanilla. Here is what you need:

• half a butternut squash
• olive oil
• about 2-3 tbsp butter
• 4 c chicken broth
• 1 1/2 c Arborio rice
• about half a white onion, diced
• 1/2 c white wine
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 c grated Parmesan
• salt
• chopped green onion
 

First things first, heat your oven to 350 degrees. Peel the butternut squash and cut it in half. Scoop out the seed with a spoon and scrape off all the gunk in the seed cavity. You can roast the seeds later with some salt if you want. Dice the squash into about one inch squares or whatever size you'll be comfortable spooning into your mouth, just as long as they're even. Lightly coat the squash cubes with olive oil and spread them out on a cookie sheet; sprinkle some salt over the top. Put them in the middle rack of the oven and leave it there for awhile while you make everything else, just check on it periodically to make sure the squash doesn't over-caramelize. That means burn.

Melt the butter in a large-ish pot over medium-high heat. In a separate medium-size pot, bring your broth to a boil, reduce it to a simmer and add your vanilla extract. If you happen to have a vanilla bean, scrape the seeds into the broth and leave the bean in to steep; you can take the bean out later. We'll come back to this in a sec. Get your onions in the melted butter and stir them until they get soft; you don't want them to get brown. Once they soften up, add your rice. Use a wooden spoon to mix it with the onion and keep stirring it until the rice gets pearlescent around the edges. Toasting the risotto with onions and butter is the traditional way to make this creamy beast.

At this point, double check your squash to make sure it's not smoking. No? Good. Start adding your simmering broth to the rice a half-cup at a time, and make sure it's fully absorbed before you add another. Keep going until all that broth is gone and the rice gets super thick. The extra starch in the Arborio rice is what gives risotto its unique, creamy texture. Now gently stir in your squash and Parmesan.

Go on ahead and spoon out a heaper into a bowl. Top it off with some diced green onions and just a little more butter. Grate a little more Parmesan over the top....because you can, that's why. Now look at the nasty weather out the window and be glad you're inside eating butter and cheese.

Brrr...it's cold out there