P+P recipe XII: Pumpkin Amaretto Risotto
Is it me or did October last all of fifteen minutes this year? Not gonna lie, it’s been a bit of a letdown. Like most people I love autumn: the colors and weather, Halloween and Samhain, the cozy and creepy and irresistibly folkloric. Where I reside it’s still balmy, the leaves have only started to turn, and apparently a new breed of mosquito has infiltrated the country that’s impervious to the cold so that’s fun. It’s basically been September with a dash of pumpkin spice. And mosquito bites.
Still, the show must go on and my husband made the perfect autumnal dish for me that I had to share before this hallowed month concludes. It’s rich and savory and comforting and like most of the recipes I post here on P+P, has a lot of substitute potential. There’s a popular pumpkin risotto dish with blue cheese and walnuts that’s basically the recipe below minus the amaretti & thyme, which I’d totally recommend. Pancetta and sausage are also great additions. And hey, you can never go wrong with pumpkin ravioli but I don’t have the patience to make pasta, y’all — gnocchi almost broke me — and the store-bought ravioli here is *chef’s kiss*.
INGREDIENTS:
1 lb cubed pumpkin (see note at the end)
1 onion
1 shallot
Several sprigs of fresh thyme
1 glass of dry white wine
1 litre vegetable broth
2 tbsps butter
8 tbsps parm
400 grams rice
4 crispy amaretti + more for garnish
DIRECTIONS:
For The Pumpkin Cream: Lightly pan fry the onion and shallots until translucent but not brown, set aside. Cube the pumpkin and boil it with half a cup of water for about 10 minutes along with the onion, shallot, and thyme. At this point you can remove the thyme sprigs or keep the leaves for a more herbal flavor.
If you have an immersion blender, turn down the heat and slowly blend. If you have a traditional blender, turn off the heat and transport the contents, blend until creamy. And if you don’t have any kind of blending apparatus no biggie, just dice the pumpkin more finely and use a fork to mash the contents before continuing to stir. Season with salt and pepper.
For The Risotto: Toast the rice in a pot for a few minutes until slightly clear. Slowly pour in the wine, stir until completely reduced, then start adding the broth a little bit at a time while continuing to stir. (I swear this is why risotto is such a drama starter on all those cooking competition shows.)
When the risotto is about 5 minutes from completion add the pumpkin cream along with the crumbled amaretto cookies. Stir until the risotto is done and turn off the stove. Add the butter and parm, stir for another minute, and finish seasoning. Serve with fresh parm and a topping of crumbled amaretti cookies.
For a first course this will serve about 4 people but if you’re making it for a main course it should generously serve 2.
NOTES: I’ve never made this with canned pumpkin as it’s impossible to find here and expat grocery websites are ridic overpriced (as in $10+ for a can of pumpkin overpriced). However, I’m 98% sure you’ll get the same result. Just substitute one can of unsweetened pumpkin for the raw and skip the water part when blending it.
…and that’s all she wrote. Buon appetito, babes!
