Pumpkin, Sage, Chestnut and Bacon Risotto - 2003

Look at the title. Those five words are so awesome. Wait, look at the title again. Pumpkin, Sage, Chestnut and Bacon. Plus Risotto, which I love.  There is a link to the recipe here.

I was making this dinner for Glee Tuesday, which my friend Julie (and Paul, but he was busy this evening) come over and we watch Glee and eat dinner, drink wine and hang out.  They are going to be Project participants for a long while, so I wanted to start with one that I knew Julie would like.

I swapped out butternut squash for the pumpkin, because even though pumpkins are available this time of year, I prefer butternut in savory applications.  The recipe said I could!  You start by roasting the butternut squash in the oven, for 40 minutes, until soft,  and then laying pieces of bacon over them, sprinkled with chestnuts, and sage. You then cook the whole thing until the bacon is crisp, and take them out of the oven.

Then you start making the risotto- which is a fairly standard risotto recipe- and I am pretty familiar with making risotto, it's one of my favorite things. when the risotto is done, you stir in half of the finely chopped squash in, then bigger chunks of the squash, and on each serving you put diced bacon, sage and chestnuts.

It was really, really good.  The finely chopped squash melts into the risotto, which turns it to a bright orange yellow color. I was worried that the bacon would overpower the dish- but it didn't- it just lent a nice saltiness to the whole mix.  The chestnuts were so excellent. I've never cooked with them before- and they were almost meaty in texture.  Definitely one to make again.