A recipe for pea and pumpkin risotto and a fresh little zucchini, tomatoes & capers salad. Extra: what to do with leftover risotto.
Pumpkin... Where to start explaining my love for pumpkin? This beautiful vegetable that comes in so many styles, sizes and colours. This lovely sweet flavour that makes pumpkin so versatile and gives inspiration for both sweet and savoury dishes. When summer almost comes to an end I truly start craving for pumpkin and Iooking forward to those autumn days that ask for nice warm dishes with pumpkin. Pumpkin soup, oven baked pumpkin with potatoes garlic and rosemary, pumpkin mash, pumpkin and chickpea stew, pumpkin risotto, ravioli stuffed with pumpkin and amaretti... What can I say? I just love pumpkin.
The Drover does not share these special feelings for pumpkin. To say that he hates pumpkin would be an exageration, but he does definately try to avoid any contact with the vegetable and when I suggest to cook something with my love, he always comes with a sneaky excuse or another idea for the meal. Meals that always turn out perfectly well and are absolutely delicious, but it can just be a little frustrating at times, when I really only want one thing... Exactly.
But something changed just last week. The Drover found a recipe in a new book that I gave him for his birthday and all of a sudden I saw pumpkin on our shopping list. Finally! What a joy! I could not wait for him to make me this nice meal with my favourite ingredient. But then my poor man got sick for a few days so I took care of him and asked him what he would like to eat. Of course, like most people when they are not feeling well, he had no idea and he just let me do whatever I felt like with our beautiful, green from the outside, orange from the inside, veggie.
I felt like rice, risotto to be precise, so I did some research for a nice recipe. Online I found a pumpkin and pea risotto recipe from Australian chef Neil Perry in his book 'The Food I Love' (via Google books to be honest). It looked great and I was hungry so I quickly started cooking. Since I did not want to open a bottle of wine just for the cooking or for drinking alone, I left the wine out (I usually, but not always, use some white wine in my risotti). Since I did not have red onion I used a brown onion and my pumpkin was not a butternut, but I believe that many pumpkin varieties can be used for a nice risotto. Here we go!
Pea and Pumkin Risotto
The Drover does not share these special feelings for pumpkin. To say that he hates pumpkin would be an exageration, but he does definately try to avoid any contact with the vegetable and when I suggest to cook something with my love, he always comes with a sneaky excuse or another idea for the meal. Meals that always turn out perfectly well and are absolutely delicious, but it can just be a little frustrating at times, when I really only want one thing... Exactly.
But something changed just last week. The Drover found a recipe in a new book that I gave him for his birthday and all of a sudden I saw pumpkin on our shopping list. Finally! What a joy! I could not wait for him to make me this nice meal with my favourite ingredient. But then my poor man got sick for a few days so I took care of him and asked him what he would like to eat. Of course, like most people when they are not feeling well, he had no idea and he just let me do whatever I felt like with our beautiful, green from the outside, orange from the inside, veggie.
I felt like rice, risotto to be precise, so I did some research for a nice recipe. Online I found a pumpkin and pea risotto recipe from Australian chef Neil Perry in his book 'The Food I Love' (via Google books to be honest). It looked great and I was hungry so I quickly started cooking. Since I did not want to open a bottle of wine just for the cooking or for drinking alone, I left the wine out (I usually, but not always, use some white wine in my risotti). Since I did not have red onion I used a brown onion and my pumpkin was not a butternut, but I believe that many pumpkin varieties can be used for a nice risotto. Here we go!
Pea and Pumkin Risotto
Adapted from Neil Perry, The Food I Love - mostly used as inspiration
Ingredients
325 g arborio rice
600 g butternut pumpkin, peeled, seeded and cut into small pieces
150 g fresh or frozen peas (I used frozen organic peas while the fresh pea season was short)
1,25 litres pumpkin stock (or chicken stock if you like, not my preference) - see the instructions below
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 small red (or other) onion, finely diced
1 garlic clove, crushed (I finely chopped mine)
sea salt
60 ml dry white wine (if you like - don't forget to spoil yourself with a glass of the wine while cooking)
25 g grated Parmesan (so happy with our lovely organic parmigiano reggiano, just from the supermarket)
60 g unsalted butter, at room temperature (?! I thought the butter had to be cold, so that's how I used it)
3 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley (why not use some fresh sage? Goes perfectly well with both pumpkin and peas)
freshly ground pepper
Put 1,75 litres slightly salted water in a saucepan and add the pieces of pumpkin. Simmer for 10-15 minutes, but check earlier if you use another pumpkin variety than butternut, like I did. You want the pumpkin to go just soft. Drain and reserve the water as your pumpkin stock and keep warm while making the risotto. Set the cooked pumpkin aside.
Perry suggest to cook the peas for a while (3 minutes when fresh, until they rise to the surface when frozen), but I prefer to cook the peas in the risotto in a later stage. Up to you!
Heat the olive oil in a large heavy-based frying pan, add the onion, garlic and some sea salt and sweat over low heat until soft. Then add the rice and cook for a few minutes while stirring, until the rice becomes opaque. If you use wine, now is the time to add it. Simmer, stir constantly and add the first big spoon of stock when the wine is completely absorbed. Keep on adding a big spoon of stock at the time, stirring occasionally, adding the next spoon when the stock is fully absorbed.
Perry adds the peas and pumpkin when the rice is ready and tender after about 15-18 minutes. I personally never time this, but I frequently taste the rice to check how far the cooking process is. A few minutes before the rice was ready I added the peas, pumpkin and some chopped sage leaves, and when the rice was ready I added the butter and cheese. Rest the risotto for a few minutes, with the lid on the pan, and then serve with a splash of good quality extra virgin olive oil, some fresh ground pepper and a little of freshly grated parmesan cheese. Buon appetito!
My final result looked very different from the picture in Neil Perry's book. Where his rice was still white, my whole dish had a beautiful golden-yellow colour. This was caused by a few pieces of pumpkin that I left sitting in the stock. This not only caused the amazing colour, it also intensified the pumpkin flavour of the stock, which I really liked. And you know what? Even the Drover had to admit that he really liked my pumpkin creation! But maybe this was influenced by him being sick? Two days later I made arancini, fried rice balls, from the leftover risotto. The Drover was feeling much better again and he again liked it. Ha!
Ingredients
325 g arborio rice
600 g butternut pumpkin, peeled, seeded and cut into small pieces
150 g fresh or frozen peas (I used frozen organic peas while the fresh pea season was short)
1,25 litres pumpkin stock (or chicken stock if you like, not my preference) - see the instructions below
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 small red (or other) onion, finely diced
1 garlic clove, crushed (I finely chopped mine)
sea salt
60 ml dry white wine (if you like - don't forget to spoil yourself with a glass of the wine while cooking)
25 g grated Parmesan (so happy with our lovely organic parmigiano reggiano, just from the supermarket)
60 g unsalted butter, at room temperature (?! I thought the butter had to be cold, so that's how I used it)
3 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley (why not use some fresh sage? Goes perfectly well with both pumpkin and peas)
freshly ground pepper
Perry suggest to cook the peas for a while (3 minutes when fresh, until they rise to the surface when frozen), but I prefer to cook the peas in the risotto in a later stage. Up to you!
Heat the olive oil in a large heavy-based frying pan, add the onion, garlic and some sea salt and sweat over low heat until soft. Then add the rice and cook for a few minutes while stirring, until the rice becomes opaque. If you use wine, now is the time to add it. Simmer, stir constantly and add the first big spoon of stock when the wine is completely absorbed. Keep on adding a big spoon of stock at the time, stirring occasionally, adding the next spoon when the stock is fully absorbed.
Perry adds the peas and pumpkin when the rice is ready and tender after about 15-18 minutes. I personally never time this, but I frequently taste the rice to check how far the cooking process is. A few minutes before the rice was ready I added the peas, pumpkin and some chopped sage leaves, and when the rice was ready I added the butter and cheese. Rest the risotto for a few minutes, with the lid on the pan, and then serve with a splash of good quality extra virgin olive oil, some fresh ground pepper and a little of freshly grated parmesan cheese. Buon appetito!
My final result looked very different from the picture in Neil Perry's book. Where his rice was still white, my whole dish had a beautiful golden-yellow colour. This was caused by a few pieces of pumpkin that I left sitting in the stock. This not only caused the amazing colour, it also intensified the pumpkin flavour of the stock, which I really liked. And you know what? Even the Drover had to admit that he really liked my pumpkin creation! But maybe this was influenced by him being sick? Two days later I made arancini, fried rice balls, from the leftover risotto. The Drover was feeling much better again and he again liked it. Ha!
For the arancini: take 3 little bowls, one with flower, one with a beaten egg and one with breadcrumbs. Make little balls, roll them through flower, egg and then crumbs and fry in some olive or sunflower oil until crisp and brown.
Side dish: salad of zucchini, tomatoes & capers
Side dish: salad of zucchini, tomatoes & capers
Adapted from Jamie Oliver, Jamie Magazine, issue 17, March/April 2011
I followed Jamie's recipe more or less, but in smaller quantities. Cut two small zucchini in thin slices, put some olive oil in a frying pan and fry the zucchini for 5-8 minutes. In the mean time half 12-15 pomodorini, put them in a bowl with the juice of half a lemon and a splash of good quality extra virgin olive oil. Add 1,5-2 tablespoons of the best capers that you can find. I use the very intensively flavoured caperi di pantelleria in salt, that need a little rinse off before using them. When the zucchini are soft and start to brown a little bit add them to the tomatoes and capers and add some fresh ground black pepper and salt to taste (probably no salt needed when using salted capers). One of my new favourite little salads!
Your take on Neil Perry's pumpkin risotto looks delicious! :) I am trying to subscribe to your blog by email but having trouble with your link...?
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