We have this dish on our vegetarian days by using vegetable stock and leaving out the bacon. I always seem to make too much as it’s quite filling, but it makes great leftovers for lunch the next day either hot or cold. The sage comes from my patio pot as it doesn’t seems to die back in the winter.

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Wednesday
Breakfast
Toast or Porridge

Lunch
Pea soup and a roll

Dinner
Butternut risotto

Snack
Vanilla biscuits

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Roast Squash, Sage, and Bacon Risotto
(Adapted from Jamie Oliver)

Ingredients

Basic Risotto recipe

1 litre of fresh, hot stock
250ml white wine (optional)
Extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and diced small
1 stick celery cut finely
2 carrots, peeled and diced
250g Arborio risotto rice
A knob of butter
50g freshly grated cheese
Salt and pepper

1 butternut squash Precooked
4 slices of bacon pressed thin with the side of a knife (optional)
1 bunch fresh sage, leaves picked (optional)
2 heaped tablespoons Crème Fraîche (optional)

Method

Firstly heat your stock either boiling a kettle for the stock cube or boiling your homemade stock in a pan.

Then fry your chopped onions, carrots and celery gently for 15 minutes. Add the rice and turn up the heat to cook for a minute stirring so as not to burn it.

Add the wine if using and cook for about a minute then turn down and start adding the stock a ladleful at a time and stir. You are looking for each ladleful of stock to be absorbed before adding the next. Don’t be tempted to stir the rice too much, you want the grains to cook but not break up.

The rice should take around fifteen minutes to cook, with regular additions of stock and a little stir. The grains should still have a little bite to them and the dish itself will have become naturally creamy.

While this is cooking scoop out the flesh from the skin of the pre-roasted butternut and add this to the half cooked risotto.

When the rice is cooked and creamy turn off the heat and let it rest a couple of minutes with a lid on, while you crisp up the bacon and gently fry the picked sage leaves.

Serve into bowls and arrange the bacon and sage leaves as the photo.