This turned out to be pretty minimalist, but fantastic. I think because Anouk cooked the rice to perfection - still slightly gritty in the middle of the grain - it didn't fulfil its potential to turn into bland mush. Instead, the pumpkin and sage balanced each other very nicely and it was great!
So: dice pumpkin and roast until soft and starting to crisp at the corners; fry onion in lots of butter until translucent; add garlic together with the risotto rice (we have ribe in our cupboard) and fry until rice starts to change colour; add a slug or two of vin santo (because we had no white wine); once that's absorbed, do the usual risotto thang with stock; shortly before the rice is done, stir in the pumkpin, a hefty handful of finely chopped fresh sage, and a couple of spoons of parmesan.
If you are in Zurich, where you can get loads of fantastic cress at the market, you could, as we did, do a salad of watercress and fairly finely chopped iceberg, with a mustardy-balsamicy dressing and a halved boiled egg. Mmm.
M
I like the sound of that risotto Matty! I learnt last year to fry sage leaves in butter, they go interestingly crispy, and use as a pasta topping from a blogging friend, I wonder if you could add those into your risotto at the end together with the pumpkin? I am very boring with risotto, I make wild mushroom risotto and... well that's it really.
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