Pumpkin Risotto

I bought two pumpkins for carving and only ended up using one of them, so had a whole pumpkin to use up (even after this there's still half left!). So I decided to make pumpkin risotto last night, which turned out really quite tasty. I'd always thought risotto was really difficult to make, but was pleasantly surprised at how straightforward it was. 

Ingredients

• 300g arborio rice
• 1.3l stock (veg, chicken, whatever you fancy)
• 500-600g pumpkin (I used about a quarter of a 30cm round one)
• olive oil
• parmesan cheese
• black pepper
• sage

Cut up pumpkin into slices, de-seed and roast (it took about 45 mins at Gas m.6 in my boat oven, so might be quicker in a standard one). While this is on the oven, prepare the rice. Bring the stock to boil and leave it simmering. In another pan (this has to be big enough to take the rice and the pumpkin eventually) heat some olive oil. Cook the rice in this for about 1 min stirring constantly, then ladle in one spoonful of stock. Stir until it's absorbed (you'll know because it becomes sticky), ladle in more stock, stir until it's absorbed... and keep going until the rice is fat and soft and lovely! I found 1.3l stock to 300g rice perfect. Now, if you have a blender, you can puree some of the pumpkin (once it's roasted, the skin will come off the flesh easily with a fork and be soft enough to puree), and chop up the rest into nice chunks. Mix the puree and chunks into the rice, along with a generous amount of cheese, and finely chopped sage. Sprinkle with more cheese and serve. Yum.

I still have over half a pumpkin left to use up! Any suggestions for favourite recipes?

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