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Healthy Eating Italian Recipes Winter

Butternut Squash and Sage Risotto

Butternut squash is one of my favourite fruits and in many respects an exceedingly suitable ingredient for a risotto. If applied correctly, squash can convey impressive flavour, smooth texture and vibrant colour. The best way to achieve this is to purée the fruit before stirring it in, thus conveying every one of its favourable traits. Believe me, this silky, luxurious risotto is destined to impress.

It is my belief that the resultant look of a dish should, where possible, complement the ingredients found within – one of the reasons it is best to purée the squash.  It turns out that this addition was a stroke comparable to that of genius – not only did the purée succeed in its objective, it also gave the entire risotto an underlying, yet subtle, butternut squash flavour. However, left alone the flavour of the squash would not satisfy – the addition of sage, a herb which works wonderfully well with pumpkin and squash alike, results in a risotto that is likely to blow you away.

Butternut Squash and Sage Risotto {recipe}

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 300g Arborio rice

• 1 large onion, finely chopped

• 325g butternut squash

• 2 cloves of garlic, mashed and chopped

• A large glass of dry white wine, roughly 200ml

• 700ml chicken or vegetable stock

• 60g parmesan cheese

• 50g knob of butter

• 7-8 sage leaves, roughly chopped

• Salt and pepper

• Olive oil

Method:

1. First you’ll need to make the fabulous purée. To do this, simply cut 250g of your squash into fairly small chunks and pop them in a pan, on a medium heat, with a little water, oil and seasoning. Cook them for 5-10 minutes, before puréeing them in a food processor. Set the purée aside.

2. Cook the onions and garlic with a good slug of olive oil, until slightly browned and soft. This should take 5-10 minutes. Add the rice and cook for an extra minute or so. Pour in the wine and cook until it has been absorbed. Then begin to add the stock little by little until around half of it has been used. At this point, stir in the purée and add the rest of your squash in the form of little cubes. Cook for a few minutes, before continuing to add the stock. Continue this process until the rice is cooked. When cooked it will be soft, but should be left with a little bite.

3. Take the risotto off the heat and stir in the butter, parmesan and sage. Pop the lid on the pan and set aside for 2-3 minutes. Eat immediately.

Cost: Risotto is an extremely simple dish and this is reflected in the cost of the meal. The entire pan of risotto, which yields more than enough food for four people, should cost around £4. This, for those of you who find themselves extremely lacking in the maths compartment, works out at a simply stunning £1 per portion.

132 replies on “Butternut Squash and Sage Risotto”

Squash and Sage are like a perfect marriage. I make this (and blogged it too 🙂 ) where I cube the squash and cook it in with the risotto or separately roasted with the sage and added later. Both ways are great, but I hadn’t thought of making a squash puree, so I will have to give this a go sometime this winter. Thanks.

Great thoughts on your progress in the kitchen and great photos, too! I linked to your original recipe a few days ago — will have to upgrade the link to this one (or both), if you don’t mind. This is truly a flavorful risotto! Happy New Year!

I’ve only ever steamed butternut squash in the microwave, with a bit of butter, salt & pepper. I really have to try this with the squash sitting on my countertop! I will cube & steam the rest of the squash, and stir into your lovely dahl recipe I spied today. YUM!

This is gorgeous, butternut squash is one of my favorite risotto flavors – I love pairing mine with gorgonzola cheese as well!

Congratulations on your one year mark! The first thing they taught us in cooking school was that we eat with our eyes…

How DARE you criticize my title post 🙂 What?? You don’t appreciate a good pun when you see one? You have broken my heart! HA. In all seriousness, this recipe sounds fabulous and a must try for me! I especially love that bowl you have pictured in the first and last photo…

An intriguing combination … I love butternut squash ravioli, so why not risotto! And sage is one of my favourite herbs. I don’t think I’ll be able to go wrong with this recipe!

“Over the past few months, I have nurtured the belief that the resultant look of a dish should complement the ingredients found within.” So true.

I’ve just nominated you for the Food Bloggers Unplugged Award. Surprised? I was too. I hope you don’t mind my passing this on. Simply return to Granny’s Parlour to retrieve 10 questions. I had a lot of fun doing this light-hearted soul searching this morning. I hope you enjoy it as well. ~ Granny

Oh wow, this looks fantastic and I am on a butternut squash kick. I think I’ll try to veganify your recipe. Hopefully it comes out as good as this one looks. Thanks for sharing.

I have yet to cook with Butternut squash, this looks really good too! With everything i saw on cooking blogs I was kinda turned off by it, because i wondered how it would taste, I saw everything from sweet to savory and I was confused, but this looks really good. I’m definitely going to try this.

great recipe and pics! Nice touch adding the cost of your dish here. Are you a Chef? I love risotto and butternut risotto is for sure a winner. Nice to see you pureeing the squash as I do this too, as well as roasting some diced squash to fold through last min. A touch of white truffle oil goes down a treat too I find.

Thanks for commenting on my post btw! 🙂

I made this for dinner today. I must confess I didn’t put cheese or butter in because I’d had a very cheesy lunch, and I couldn’t quite part with £2.50 for a lump of parmesan! It was still utterly delicious, the sage comes through brilliantly, adding such flavour to every mouthful.

Thank you for visiting my blog, I’m thrilled to discover your great recipe site. I have some beautiful Butternut squash that I have been looking for a new recipe for and this recipe looks fabulous! I’ll take pictures and let you know how it turns out. Cheers!

[…] If you’re a proponent of the use of the powerful, dark and more earthy flavour of the average beetroot, feel free to indulge your inner most root-based desires; every inch of the recipe remains the same. As the recipe below states, the inclusion of wine is optional, though it does have the pleasing effect of deepening the flavour of risotto – this is particularly important when using vegetable stock. However, if you’re looking for a slightly lighter, sweeter risotto recipe you could try my recipe for butternut squash and sage risotto. […]

Much as you are loathe to admit it, Nige has his enormous following (gaggle) of admirers all tumbling over themselves to buy his books, watch ANYTHING with him in it on the telly and generally natter amongst themselves and keep the interweb humming and buzzing with his name and namesake recipes and if I WAS to say that you are the new hetero “Nige” on the block, this wouldn’t be insulting and would be positively blazing with kudos. This recipe is gorgeous in colour and promising flavour. Forget Nige, maybe you are the new Ottolenghi?!

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