butternut bliss

Thanks for the picture, Williams-Sonoma.  Feel free to use one of mine.  Please?

You may be wearing your flannel pj's, drinking hot chocolate and watching leaves fall like rain outside, but until you've had roasted butternut squash risotto, you haven't really celebrated fall.  Dramatic, I know, but I love the stuff.  Let's continue celebrating fabulous fall, shall we?  My risotto recipe makes enough for about 4 people.  And remember, leftovers are your friend, and this risotto might just be your best friend. 

This picture's just to inspire you.  Because cutting up a butternut squash is not for the faint of heart (or dull of knife), so you're going to need all your courage.  Deep breath, here we go...

Let me walk you through how I do it.  Thank your butternut for contributing to a delicious autumnal feast.  Then, cut a bit off the top and bottom (so it's flat on the bottom and top) and cut crosswise in three large pieces.

Sit up each little section and use your knife to work your way down the sides and take the peel off.

You'll be left with three little stumpy guys.

Do whatever you like with these: make an autumn wreath out of them to show you've conquered the mighty butternut or...compost 'em.  It's up to you.

Now take the bottom third of the squash, cut in half and scoop out the seeds and that weird alien pumpkinish gooey stuff.

Slice each section into thick rounds, slice again to make little rectangles...

 and then cube them up.  You didn't expect this to be a basic math refresher, did you?

Now comes what takes those golden cubes to a whole new level: rosemary.  Woodsy (in a good way — not a 2x4 kind of way), fragrant, piney, yum.  Chop finely, because that delightful herb when roasted turns into little sharp sticks that are not so fun to swallow.  Trust me.  Tiny is better.

Toss that yummy butternut with salt, pepper, olive oil and the rosemary and roast at 400ºF/200ºC, stirring twice or so, for 25-30 minutes.  They're done when the squash is soft and starting to caramelize on the outside.

Like this.  I should warn you: at this point you will be tempted to just stand at the kitchen counter and pop these golden squares of goodness straight into your mouth, not even bothering with the risotto.  It's okay, I won't judge.  They are creamy, crunchy, divine.

If you somehow manage to resist eating all of the butternut squash, let's get going on the risotto.  (The best way to be sure you actually do complete this recipe is to, of course, roast the squash at the same time you're making the risotto.  I believe it's what people refer to as "multitasking.")  Chop one onion and three cloves of garlic.  Put 4 cups of low-sodium chicken stock in a saucepan and simmer on low.

Saute the onions in a deep, heavy-bottomed pan in a little olive oil and 1 T of butter with a dash of s&p, until soft.  Add the garlic and cook for another few minutes.

You need some of this fancy schmancy arborio rice.  It's Italian, short-grained (short is cool) and even Julia Child could't make decent risotto without it.

 Add 1 cup of rice and stir in the hot oil & butter for a few minutes until translucent.

(This is what it will look like.) 

 Ladle in (or cup measure in, I suppose) some of the chicken stock...

and stir, stir, stir, adding more stock as needed when the rice absorbs most of it.  It will take a little less than 20 minutes in total, until the rice is al dente, which is fancy  Italian lingo for good-n-done, but not soggy.

 In the meantime, grate about 1/2 cup of parmesan.

Remember those butternut bites of joy?  Like you could forget them!  Take about a fourth of them and stuff them all in your mouth at once blend in a food processor with about 1/4 cup of chicken stock.

 Beautiful, huh?

Stir the puree into the risotto and watch it change color from calm cream to outstanding orange.  Lovely.

Add in the rest of the butternut squash and the cheese and stir to combine.  Adjust salt and pepper if you need to.  The parm has some saltiness to it, so be sure to only adjust salt after adding that.

Enjoy this decadent taste of fall.  The butternut squash puree gives it a sublime creaminess and the rosemary adds the perfect hint of earthiness.  You'll love it, I promise.  And coming soon, I'll share my pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  Can you tell why fall is my favorite season?

Bon appetit!

lilrevchef

sensational seasonal soup

Now, doesn't this just look like a big, warming bowl of wonderful?  It's sausage and broccoli soup (what Rachael Ray calls "stoup" as it's somewhere between stew and soup).  My memory of this soup is making it after being completely drenched by the typically chilly Northern Irish rain and my dear friend Andrea and I wolfing it down with big hunks of bread, only stopping eating to murmur "It's soooo good!" every few minutes.  This is not your ordinary out-of-a-can soup.  In fact, it's so special I wanted to make it for my sister and brother-in-law when I was visiting them last week as a little celebration of their 7th wedding anniversary.  So, whether you're feeling chilly (which in Texas, I'm not really) or wanting to celebrate an anniversary or an ordinary Friday, I highly recommend this big pot of love.  This makes a really substantial amount of soup (because I wanted Ash and Clay to have plenty of leftovers).

You'll need some of those divine San Marzano tomatoes.  They do cost about a dollar more than ordinary tomatoes, but as they're a huge part of this soup and have a delightful sweet flavor (instead of the sometimes overly-acidic flavor of other canned tomatoes), it's worth it.  You'll need a 28 ounce can, and don't worry if you can only find whole tomatoes instead of crushed.  They usually only come whole, but are easy to break up with a wooden spoon in the soup.

 Take three cloves of garlic, finely mince them and also finely chop one medium onion.

Brown 3 links of sweet Italian sausage and 3 links of hot Italian sausage (taken out of the casings) in a little bit of olive oil.  You'll want to use a wooden spoon to break up the sausage as it cooks.  As I don't think terms "rare" and "sausage" go very well together, I cooked it well, about 15 minutes on medium-high heat.  About halfway through cooking, add the chopped onions.  In the last 5 minutes or so, add the garlic, too.

Add about 1/8 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg (it adds amazing depth to this soup).

Then add in those sublime San Marzanos and use that handy wooden spoon to break them up.

 Get your broccoli ready.  Rachael's recipe uses broccoli rabe (which you have to blanch first to get rid of bitterness), but when I've made this I just use broccolini.  You may be thinking that's a typo, but that extra syllable's on purpose!  Broccolini is sometimes called baby broccoli or Tenderstem broccoli, and it has delicate little florets and stalks that are tender and yummy, too. Trim the broccolini into bite-sized pieces.

Now, we need to get a bit more liquid in that delicious pot.  Add in one container or chicken stock (about 4 cups).  I use boxed stock because making my own stock just seems like a lot of trouble.  

 Also add in about 2 cups of water.

This fabulous soup has pasta in it too (go ahead, do a little happy dance).  I used this campanelle pasta, because it's just so gosh-darn cute.

 Adorable, right?

Once that sumptuous soup is simmering...

 ...add in the broccolini...

 ...and the pasta.  Also add in one can of cannellini or great northern beans.  They add a Tuscan creaminess to the soup.  Let it cook until both the broccolini and pasta are al dente (about 6 minutes or so).

While that was cooking, I made some garlic bread Ina Garten style.  Ciabatta bread is best for this.

Finely chop together three cloves of garlic and 1/4 cup of parsley.  You could use a  food processor but I used an antiquated contraption called a knife. Season it with a little salt and pepper.  Heat 1/2 cup olive oil in a small saute pan and add this mixture, then turn off the heat.  Cut the bread in half and spread one side with 2 tablespoons of butter and brush the other side with the garlic herb oil.  Wrap in foil and bake at 350ºF/176ºC for ten minutes, opening the top of the foil halfway through.  Yum, herby, garlicky.  YUM.

Once the pasta and broccolini are done, add a bit of parmesan cheese (1/4 cup or so).

 Your heart just skipped a beat, didn't it?  So decadent and hearty.

Top each bowl with a little more parmesan, grab some of that herby crusty bread and enjoy this earthy, hearty bowl of joy.

Bon appetit!
lilrevchef