I was down in London Tuesday night at a PR Media network event held at the Waldorf Hilton by the Food4Media group

The highlight of my evening was meeting TV chef and author Antonio Carluccio. He's a warm easy to talk to nice guy and he graciously offered me several nuggets of advice about cooking on TV. If you like Italian cooking………… your cookery book collection should include some of Antonio’s titles.

Being a chef, I don’t always make time on my schedule for these kinds of events but I should if I want to continue raising my profile and doing TV work in the UK.

Anyone trying to pronounce the name I have given this dish will think its a right “mouthful”,
but infact I was going to call it “Roasted Butternut Squash & Sage Risotto” originally, because the recipes also includes sage. However if this is off-putting you could just give it an Italian name such as Risotto di zucca (Zucca being the Italian name for squash). One thing that is certain if you’ve been following my column for a while is I’m a bit evangelical when it comes to Risotto. It is so versatile and can be used as starter or main course; it can contain meat, seafood or vegetarian ingrediants. If you haven’t had a good enough risotto to fall in love with the dish, then give this a try! and you too could say......mmmm! that’s a right mouthful.

300 grams Arborio Rice
1 large RedOnion roughly chopped
1100 ml Chicken or vegetable stock
1 Large butternut squash
1sprig of fresh sage
90 grams Parmesan cheese (grated)
60 grams Parmesan curls
100 grams Unsalted butter cut into small pieces
200ml dry white wine
1/2 green chilli deseeded & finely diced
4 large cloves garlic peeled
1 tablespoon olive oil

1.) Peel and roughly cut up the butternut squash , setting aside the seeds.
2.) Drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil onto the squash, season with salt & pepper and roast in a
hot oven 220 C for 30 minutes or until golden brown & tender, then set aside.
2.) Put your chicken or vegetable stock onto heat, adding the sage and the garlic and simmer until tender and the sage and garlic flavours are infused into the stock then remove.
3.) Melt 40 grams of butter in a thick bottomed saucepan adding the red onion, as soon as the
butter has just melted.
4.) On a medium heat cook the onion until it is translucent (about 5 minutes),
stirring often with a wooden spoon or spatula.
5.) Add your rice and continue to stir the mixture for a further 2-3 minutes to coat the rice with butter.
6.) Pour in the white wine and cook until the white has been absorbed into the rice, remember to keep ocassionally stirring, then add the diced chili.
7.) Gradually add the hot stock 1-2 ladles at a time, letting the rice absorb most of the stock before adding more ....and don’t forget to stir.
8.) Rinse off the reserved butternut squash seeds seperating any membraine from the seeds, then dry the seeds on paper towel, season with salt & black pepper. Roast in a moderate hot oven until golden brown.
9.) After all the stock has been absorbed into the rice (20-25 min), turn the heat down. and stir in the roasted squash pieces.
10.) Then gradually add the rest of the butter & Parmesan cheese, the risotto should be a creamy quite runny consistency. The rice should be tender but still have a little bite to it.
11.) Season with salt & pepper (if needed) and serve topping each portion with a few Parmesan curls & the toasted butternut squash seeds.

Chef’s Tips
Risotto is best served with a salad dressed with oil & balsamic vinegar, and of course a glass or 2 of crisp cold white wine. You can also deep fry a few extra sage leaves drain them on paper towels then sprinkle on each bowl of risotto. Deep frying sage leaves really mellows the flavour so give it a try, just make sure your frying oil is clean.