Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 small butternut squash (or half a large one)
• Small bunch of fresh thyme
• 2 cloves of garlic, leaves skin on and crush with back of knife
• 1 onion
• 150g pancetta (omit to make veggie version!)
• 250g Arborio rice
• 1 to 1.5 litres of vegetable or chicken stock
• 100g feta + extra to sprinkle on top
• 100ml white wine (can replace with extra stock)
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 200°C (180°C fan).
2. Peel the butternut squash, chop into even chunks (~2cm diameter). Toss in a drizzle of olive oil, salt & pepper, crushed garlic and a few sprigs of thyme. Roast for 30–40 minutes, turning halfway through.
3. Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, brown the pancetta in a small amount of olive oil until crispy then remove and put to the side on a kitchen-towelled plate.
4. Add onion to the pan and cook until softened, return the pancetta to the pan and stir in the rice until coated in oil.
5. Add white wine and stir until absorbed by rice.
6. Pour about 1/4 litre of stock into the pan, bring to the boil and stir until the rice has absorbed the liquid.
7. Repeat the process until the rice is cooked through
8. Once cooked, chop two thirds of the roasted butternut squash into approximately 1cmx1cm cubes, and stir into the risotto along with two thirds of the parmesan cheese, a large handfull of spinach. plus seasoning to taste
9. Dish risotto into bowls, top with chunks of roasted butternut squash, asparagus and parmesan cheese

Source

I was fortunate to have (on the whole) really tasty school food, and this is my take of one of my all-time-favourite school dinners. Butternut squash risotto was served every other week on a Friday as the vegetarian option alongside good old fish & chips. After tasting the risotto by chance one week (I was late and they had run out of fish), I never looked back. I would always rave about it to my mum and my grandparents, so one weekend, when I was staying with my Nan and Grandad, Grandad and I decided to try and re-create the recipe. It was made up based on the flavours I remembered – this is the first time it’s been written down!