Pumpkin Risotto

Risotto is one my favorite dish. It is delicate to prepare, but with a little bit of patience, you can do amazing dishes! It is also great to be able to change the ingredients and just follow your imagination!

Risotto is a traditional Italian dish created in the North of Italy centuries ago and the original recipe, from Milan, only had some saffron and parmiggiano.... you can learn how to do this recipe and all the story of this dish, come at my Italian cooking workshop and discover much more than cooking!

Tonight, I wanted to prepare a warm and tasty autumn tribute,... please follow the steps of this pumpkin and chestnuts risotto!

 Here is the recipe for 4 persons:

- 4 shallots
- 1 garlic clove

- 2 small glasses of round rice - choose a risotto rice like arborio o carnaroli

- 100 grs of chestnuts (I buy them already cooked)
- 200 grs of pumpkin

- 1 glass of white wine (20 cl)

- 150 grs of bacon
- 2 tbs. of grated parmiggiano reggiano or comté

- salt, pepper and laurel

1. First wash and slice thinly the shallots and garlic. Cut the pumpkin, peel the skin, take off the seeds inside and cut it into chunks of 2 x 2 cm approximately.

2. In a fried pan, I put the shallots and garlic with a spoon of olive oil and grill them with a medium heat. 
After 5 minutes, I add the bacon slices and the pumpkin let the ingredients get golden. 

3. When the shallots and bacon are ready and the pumpkin starts to be roasted, I add the rice and stir it for a couple of minutes, till the rice gets translucent!
The rice will suck the bacon fat and flavours of the former ingredients.

4. Add the white wine and let boil off. Once the liquid gets evaporated, we add some hot water on top of the rice, add salt and pepper and a couple of laurel leaves. I cover it and let it cook for at least 20 minutes.

5. In the meanwhile, in another pan I cook the chestnuts with some broth during 10 minutes a medium heat in order to make them softer.

After this time, the risotto, should be ready. Stop the heat and let the rice 5 minutes covered. Add 2 spoons of grated cheese and stir gently.

Serve in a plate the risotto topped with the chestnuts,... Enjoy!!!!

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