Mushroom and Squash Risotto

I remember when I came home from college having taught myself to cook risotto. My mom was interested, but worried about the difficulty. There seems to be a lot of misinformation running around peoples' minds about how hard risotto is to cook. It's easy. It does take a little while, and you can't rush it, but it's the kind of background task you can easily socialize while doing. And the results, yum!

Risotto is a great comfort food. It's warm and creamy in texture. You can make it with all sorts of alternate ingredients, with results ranging from almost sweet to very savory. This was the first time I made risotto for Debbie. It has to be tweaked a bit, because she avoids all things dairy. (Except some chocolate.) Even so I'm pretty sure this made her list of comfort foods for the years ahead.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 3-5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1/2 pound mushrooms, quartered
• 1 acorn squash, peeled and diced
• 10-16 ounces rice (such as Arborio)

• 4-6 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup dry white wine

Directions

1. Prepare your ingredients, mincing garlic, chopping onions, cleaning and slicing mushrooms, peeling and chopping the squash.
2. Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat. Meanwhile bring stock to a simmer in a separate saucepan.

3. Sauté garlic and onion in the oil, until fragrant and softened.

4. Add rice to the pan, and cook, stirring, until the outside of the rice starts to turn translucent.

5. Add wine, and cook until nearly evaporated.
6. Add simmering broth to the rice, two ladelfuls to start with, stirring occasionally.
7. Stir in the squash or similar uncooked ingredients.

8. Add one additional ladelful of simmering broth when the rice is no longer swimming, maybe half to a full minute apart. The total amount used varies on factors too hard to predict, so be prepared to add some more broth (or water), or end up with some left over. Keep going until a taste test has the right texture, with no crunch in the center and just the right amount of creaminess.
9. Stir in mushrooms or similar cooked ingredients (such as 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese). Season (I think we used some Italian seasoning), and serve.

He said

I love the flexibility of risotto. This variant is lightly sweet, but others I've made before range from a strong mushroom flavor (lots of mushrooms added earlier to shrivel down), to a savory chicken and spinach (stir-fry bite-sized chicken ahead and set aside to add at the end).

Starchy risotto rices such as Arborio come in two main kinds of packaging. You can find loose plastic containers or boxes, or you can find vacuum-packed bags such as the one above (sold inside a box).

She said

This was not only the first time Mike made risotto for me; it was also the first time I've ever tried it. And it will definitely not be my last. I'm hooked. The creamy, velvety rice mixed with veggies was delicious, and I'm looking forward to our next batch.