Bacon, butternut squash and taleggio risotto

Risotto is one of those gorgeous, warming comfort foods which I crave when the weather turns cold. We had a few leftovers in the fridge and Nigel Slater always bangs on about how lovely taleggio cheese is so I decided to whip this up for dinner. In hindsight, it’s probably better to buy the cheese from a deli- I got mine from Tesco and was decidedly underwhelmed by its subtle creamy flavour but full frontal cheesy pong! On the other hand you could just substitute it for some parmesan.

I added some chestnut mushrooms to this mix as well but quite frankly they were surplus to requirement. This makes enough to feed four averagely hungry people but because Nick can eat a colossal amount of risotto I made this for just two.

Ingredients

• 1 small butternut squash, peeled deseeded and chopped into small cubes.
• 100gms unsmoked bacon chopped into strips
• 100gms taleggio cheese with the rind removed and cubed
• 250gms Arborio rice
• 3 pints chicken stock (I use 1 stock cube to 3 pints hot water)
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic finely chopped
• Small handful of fresh lemon thyme washed and chopped finely
• Salt and pepper
• 1 glass white wine (any kind will do)
• 2tbsp olive oil

Method

1. Warm the olive oil in a big saucepan or wok over a low heat. Add the bacon and onions and cook for 1 minute. Add the garlic and continue cooking for 2-3 mins until the onions have softened and the bacon has cooked through.
2. Pour in the rice and stir well to coat with the oil. Add the wine, turn up the heat and allow the wine to bubble off. It’s important that you keep stirring the risotto from now onwards. This is what makes it creamy and prevents it from sticking to the pan.
3. Once the wine has been absorbed by the rice, start adding the stock one ladleful at a time, only add the next ladleful when the one before has been absorbed. Add the squash, lemon thyme and seasoning at this point as well. You may need to reduce the heat a little so that it just simmers gently.
4. It will take a good half hour or for the rice and squash to cook so be patient and keep stirring. You may not need all of the stock, but when you’re about two thirds of the way through the jug start tasting the rice to see if its cooked- you want it to retain a little bite and not get too mushy. When you think it’s starting to near readiness stop adding the stock but keep stirring until the liquid in the pan is absorbed.
5. When the risotto looks like a rice pudding-type consistency add the cheese and stir through, keep stirring until it has melted. Check the seasoning and serve immediately.

p.s. this would also be really nice if you roasted the squash before adding it as well. It would enhance the sweetness and give it a softer texture.