Roasted Butternut Squash & Carrot Risotto

I don't know why people say making risotto is hard...it's about as easy as toast. The challenge is that you can't leave the pan unattended, something my mom would have never been able to do. My mom burned or overcooked everything. This fact has given me some weird food favorites - burned hot dogs, for one. Lucky for me, here in Chicago, these are a menu item called char dogs. Okay, enough about burnt food.

Let's make some risotto. And, this happens to be vegan...however, I think butter would take this over the edge.

Start by roasting a butternut squash. Heat the oven to 375-400. I use a deep, heavy cookie sheet. Cut the squash the long way, remove the seeds, spray with cooking spray, and put cut side down on the cookie sheet. I always put some water in there too. Pop in the oven for 30 minutes. Halfway through, I threw in some baby carrots and 3 cloves of garlic to roast as well. I also put the dry risotto on another cookie sheet and toasted it until it got a bit of color. For the last 10 minutes, flip the squash so the cut side gets roasty. Pull it out and set it aside to cool.

Ingredients
3 cups vegetable stock
2-3 Tbs buttery product

1/4 red onion, chopped
1/2 c dry white wine
pinch of saffron
1 cup risotto

1/2 cup chopped roasted carrots & garlic
1/2 Tbs dried sage
1 cup roasted squash
Salt
Pepper

Put about 3 cups of vegetable stock in a pan and keep it warm, on the back burner worked well for me. In a large saucepan, melt some "butter." Once melted, add the onions and saute over medium heat until translucent (I like my onions done a bit more, with some caramelization). Add the risotto and coat well with the butter. Add the saffron & wine, cook until the wine is absorbed.

Now, we get to business! You can't walk away because times are approximate.

Add enough stock to cover the rice, cook medium high for ~10 minutes - the stock should be absorbed. Add a cup of stock and cook until absorbed (~5 mins). Add the carrots and garlic mixture. Repeat the process, cup by cup, until stock is gone, only stir mid-way through. Rice should be cooked al dente - still firm in the middle. Last step is to add the sage and squash, S&P to taste - I love lots of pepper.

Mix well and serve!