Jaime Oliver's pumpkin, sage, bacon, and chestnut risotto

Here's how yesterday went: first I watched the NYC Marathon on television. Then I sat around on my couch. And then I cooked and ate an artery clogging dinner.

I have been saving this Jaime Oliver risotto recipe since it was published in the New York Times in 2003 and finally made it tonight because I already had sage, two quarts of homemade chicken stock in my fridge which I made with the carcass from last weekend's roast chicken, and because the Stokes Farm stand has had a lot of butternut squash lately. I replaced pedestrian bacon with sliced, not rolled, pancetta, which is available at Fairway's deli counter. Also, I had no interest in bothering with a pumpkin, so I used butternut squash, which Jaime said would be ok.


There were several times during this recipe where I scratched my head: dust the roasting squash with ground coriander? Put the bacon, or pancetta in my case, on top of roasting squash in the oven? Why not cook it on top of the stove first, remove with a slotted spoon, and then cook the shallot, celery, and rice in the rendered fat? And celery? In risotto? Really? And then four tablespoons (that's half a stick) of butter!? But I've eaten at Fifteen, Jaime's famous Italian restaurant in London, a couple of times and the food was actually really good. So I decided to trust him.


As you can see, I made garlicky broccoli to go with the risotto.

All I can say is wow. It was delicious. AND DECADENT! Pancetta AND butter (and I only used one tablespoon) AND grated cheese?! This risotto is going down in history as one of the meals that will flash before my eyes when I have a heart attack one day, along with a cheeseburger I ate from a drive through at In and Out after a week of over-eating in Napa when I wasn't even hungry, but just curious about In and Out.





If you don't eat breakfast or lunch one day and instead feel like hitting the calorie jackpot in just one meal, then I certainly recommend this fall risotto indulgence. It was pretty easy to make, all things considered, and if I need to go into hibernation tomorrow, I should be ok until at least February.