"Without rice, even the cleverest housewife cannot cook”- proverb

Perfect Pumpkin and goats cheese risotto- only a few ingredients and minimal time. One tasty dish for the family. Bonus: It's also Vegetarian!!!!




Risotto. So simple, easy and delicious and yet it is so hard to perfect. On Masterchef it is called the disaster killer dish, as anyone who has made it has been sent packing. On a recent episode it took them a number of goes to even make the dish. So what are the tricks and secrets?

1) You must add some butter to a hot pan, add 1/2 a brown onion nicely diced and sweat till the onions are translucent. Then add a cup of arborio rice (serves 2). TIP: Make sure you AGITATE the pan so that the rice gets coated with butter.

2) Add some rosemary stalks and add some white wine around the edges of the pan so that it washes all  the goodness in.


3) Then add HOT chicken stock (roughly a litre) to just cover the rice and cook on medium to high heat. Every few minutes continue to add stock. TIP: DO NOT stir the risotto EVER. Instead merely agitate the pan by picking it up and moving it back and forth. Continue to do this process for roughly 25 mins (add stock. agitate. simmer for some minutes....repeat). Make sure you don't get it to the point of glugginess and sticking together.

4) Meanwhile.................... get a big piece of pumpkin and grate it. Make sure you remove the skin.

5) Add some butter to a saucepan and add the grated pumpkin and cook/steam over a low heat with the lid on. Check it every now and then to make sure the pumpkin is not sticking to the bottom. Cook for 15 min or till the pieces become mushy and you can mash with a spoon.

6) Take off the heat and put into a food processor and process till it becomes mushy like baby food. (This could be turned into a great pumpkin soup too).

7) Once risotto is cooked and has soaked up most of the stock, add some more butter pieces on top and grate some fresh parmesan or pecorino and add spoonfuls of the pumpkin mixture (I put most in but its up to your taste buds). Stir in the pan all together. Season with salt and pepper.












8) To serve spoon the risotto on the plate. TIP: it should be a thin layer on the plate in its juice  not a gluggy ball.  Add some goats cheese on top and grate some of the parmesan etc on top...dress with rosemary and drizzle with some oil.

                                                            BON APPETITE!!!!