Creamy, earthy and flavorful butternut squash and mushroom risotto
This butternut squash dish is creamy, earthy and flavorful. Serve it by itself or as a side complement to chicken or pork. Risottos (and pasta) are often served as a first dish (primo) followed by a main course (secondo) in Italy. Like pasta, risotto is quite versatile. Once you know the basic cooking technique, you can easily adapt recipes to include various combinations of fresh seasonal vegetables.
Risotto gets its creamy texture from the starches that are released from the rice during the cooking process. In Italy carnaroli rice is commonly used for risotto. Arborio rice is somewhat easier to find here and is equally as good. Both are short-grain rice high in starch.
. It goes through a year of incredible Italian dishes cooked seasonally as the freshest ingredients become available. This philosophy of eating and preparing food seasonally greatly impacted me.
