Pumpkin and blue cheese risotto. Best recipes with photos of tasty dishes.

Pumpkin and blue cheese risotto

Pumpkin is my autumn love. Moreover, it is a very happy love and a mutual one 🙂 And the combination of pumpkin and blue cheese in any version delivers the necessary portion of sun and joy even on the greyest November days 😉

  • Prep time: 5 minutes + 30 minutes’ pumpkin baking
  • Cook time: 25-30 minutes
  • Serves: 4
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Course: pasta & risotto
  • Cookware: copper saucepan, wooden spoon
  • Cuisine: Italian

Ingredients

⠀

  • 240 g risotto rice
  • 150 g butter
  • ½ medium onion, finely chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
  • 100 ml white wine
  • 800 ml chicken broth
  • 500 g pumpkin
  • 40 g parmesan, grated
  • 40 g sun-dried tomatoes
  • 40 g dorblu, or other soft blue cheese

Cooking method

Step 1

Heat the oven to 180˚С. Peel the pumpkin and cut into small pieces. Place on a baking sheet with parchment paper and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Step 2

Put a saucepan with stock on low heat so that it constantly simmers. Melt 100g butter in a separate saucepan over low heat. Add onion and sauté until it is soft and translucent but doesn’t change its colour. Add garlic and stir. Add rice. Stir constantly and fry until the rice becomes transparent.

Step 3

Increase heat to medium. Pour the white wine into a saucepan with rice and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spatula or spoon, until the wine is completely absorbed by the rice. Stir in the stock, ladle by ladle, so that each time it covers the rice completely. Constantly stirring, wait for each addition to absorb before adding the next. When about half of the stock remains, add the pumpkin. Continue cooking the risotto in the same way until the stock is completely absorbed. The rice should be al dente when cooked. Remove risotto from heat, add 50g butter, parmesan and stir vigorously.

Cook risotto

Step 4

Put the risotto on plates. Decorate each portion of risotto with dorblu and sun-dried tomatoes, and serve immediately.

My tips and tricks:

When cooking your risotto, use one of the specially grown Italian rice varieties such as arborio, carnaroli or vialone nano. Recently I tried to make risotto from the Spanish variety bomba, rice for paella. It turns out that even if the rice is not from the “right” country, it can turn out to be tasty and “right” too 🙂 So, why these varieties? The main thing in risotto is its creaminess. It is obtained from the large amount of liquid, constant stirring and the high starch content of rice. If you go with a low starch variety, you will not be able to achieve the required creamy texture of a good risotto. Varieties grown specifically for risotto tolerate constant stirring well, plus they give off starch, and at the same time remain fairly firm inside. Paella varieties give off starch a little more slowly, and the risotto is more al dente than risotto from specialized varieties.

Pumpkin and blue cheese risotto
 
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Author:
Recipe type: pasta & risotto
Cuisine: Italian
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 240 g risotto rice
  • 150 g butter
  • ½ medium onion, finely chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
  • 100 ml white wine
  • 800 ml chicken broth
  • 500 g pumpkin
  • 40 g parmesan, grated
  • 40 g sun-dried tomatoes
  • 40 g dorblu, or other soft blue cheese
Cooking method
  1. Heat the oven to 180˚С. Peel the pumpkin and cut into small pieces. Place on a baking sheet with parchment paper and bake for 20-25 minutes.
  2. Put a saucepan with stock on low heat so that it constantly simmers. Melt 100g butter in a separate saucepan over low heat. Add onion and sauté until it is soft and translucent but doesn’t change its colour. Add garlic and stir. Add rice. Stir constantly and fry until the rice becomes transparent.
  3. Increase heat to medium. Pour the white wine into a saucepan with rice and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spatula or spoon, until the wine is completely absorbed by the rice. Stir in the stock, ladle by ladle, so that each time it covers the rice completely. Constantly stirring, wait for each addition to absorb before adding the next. When about half of the stock remains, add the pumpkin. Continue cooking the risotto in the same way until the stock is completely absorbed. The rice should be al dente when cooked. Remove risotto from heat, add 50g butter, parmesan and stir vigorously.
  4. Put the risotto on plates. Decorate each portion of risotto with dorblu and sun-dried tomatoes, and serve immediately.
My tips and tricks
When cooking your risotto, use one of the specially grown Italian rice varieties such as arborio, carnaroli or vialone nano. Recently I tried to make risotto from the Spanish variety bomba, rice for paella. It turns out that even if the rice is not from the "right" country, it can turn out to be tasty and "right" too 🙂 So, why these varieties? The main thing in risotto is its creaminess. It is obtained from the large amount of liquid, constant stirring and the high starch content of rice. If you go with a low starch variety, you will not be able to achieve the required creamy texture of a good risotto. Varieties grown specifically for risotto tolerate constant stirring well, plus they give off starch, and at the same time remain fairly firm inside. Paella varieties give off starch a little more slowly, and the risotto is more al dente than risotto from specialized varieties.