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Roast squash, sage, chestnut and pancetta risotto

roast squash, sage, chestnut and pancetta risotto

main courses | serves 6
If I could pick a load of ingredients that just shout out ‘Bonfire Night! Christmas! Cosy!’ it would have to be all the ones in this risotto. It’s so damn good — cook it whenever the ingredients are in season.

Preheat your oven to 190°C/375°F/gas 5. Carefully cut your butternut squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Put these to one side. Cut the squash lengthways into 0.5cm/¼ inch slices. Bash up your coriander and chillies with a pinch of salt and pepper in a pestle and mortar (or use a metal bowl and the end of a rolling pin). Dust this over your squash with a tablespoon of olive oil. Toss around until completely coated. Line up snugly in a roasting tray and bake for around 30 minutes until the flesh and skin are soft to the touch. Now get all your ingredients ready and start making your basic risotto.

Remove the squash from the oven and lay your pancetta over it. Mix the squash seeds, chestnuts and sage leaves with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Sprinkle over the squash and pancetta and place back in the oven for about 5 to 10 minutes until the pancetta is crisp.

Once the squash has cooled down a little, shake off the pancetta and chestnuts and finely chop the squash – it will be quite mushy but that’s fine. I go for half of it fine and half chunky. Add this to the risotto at the end of Stage 3. Carry on as normal through the basic recipe, season to taste and serve with the pancetta, chestnuts, sage leaves and squash seeds sprinkled over the top.

Lovely served with a big dollop of mascarpone cheese on the side.

Try this: Place a grater and a block of Parmesan cheese in the middle of the table so that everyone can help themselves.


From Jamie's Kitchen

Baking Cookies

Ingredients
Dough:
2 1/2 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unblanched almonds, finely ground
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
10 ounces (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar

To decorate:
1 cup unsifted powdered sugar
2/3 cup raspberry jam

Method
Cream butter and granulated sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. In a separate small bowl, combine the flour, ground almonds, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt. Incorporate flour mixture into butter mixture and combine well.

Cut ball of dough into thirds. Place each piece of dough between two sheets of wax paper and roll out until quite thin--about 1/8 of an inch. Refrigerate until firm, about an hour.

Preheat your oven to 350 F and place a rolled portion of dough on your work surface. Peel away the top layer of wax paper. Use a round cookie cutter (about 2 inches in diamter) to cut out your rounds, and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. For half of the rounds, to create the tops of the cookies, use a small cutter to cut out the middle.

(Little shapes look quite pretty, but if you don't have small cutters like that, you can use a straw to cut out three small holes in the middle of the round.)

Bake for about 10 minutes, or until just slightly golden. Remove from oven and let cool on the sheet for a few minutes; then transfer to a cooling rack. When the tops are cool, sprinkle with icing sugar.

When you are ready to fill your cookies, flip over each bottom piece and place about 1/4 tsp of raspberry jam in the middle. Top with the top part of the cookie to create the sandwich.

Check out http://cupcakesandcashmere.com/ for more Inspiration, and Recipes. I love this blog!

Jamie Oliver

I am making Fish Pie tonight. I found the perfect recipe in a cookbook from Jamie Oliver "The ministry of food''.I Die for Jamie, his recipes are always easy to make and are delish!

Hello Kitty food

Courtesy of Flickr: Rubyran, Rakka & OrangeCountry_Girl