Risotto… it takes forever, but it is delicious!

The last few items in our weekly CSA box were cherry tomatoes, canteloupe, and some summer squash. Summer squashes are the ones that you can eat basically fresh, like zucchini and crookneck squash. All you need to do is cut ‘em up, add salt, and maybe toss them in a pan with olive oil for a little. Winter squash, like pumpkins, acorn squash, and butternut squash, are best suited for roasting and mashing and making into delicious snowy day soups (it doesn’t snow here though…). Anyway, we got one zucchini and a couple of crookneck squash in our box, and since the next box is coming fairly soon I thought it was high time to get the squash ball rolling.

So what do you do with summer squash? Probably the most delicious thing to do is to bread it and fry it and eat it with marinara, but that’s not really very “health conscious.” Instead, I decided to make risotto, because I’ve never done it before (GASP, I know rite? D:). The roommates were all down in Santa Cruz at the beach, so I decided to invite my friend Morgan over to be my guinea pig, and for company!

Summer squash risotto

• About 8 summer squash, chopped into 1/4 inch cubes
• [unqualified] olive oil or vegetable oil (for frying)
• Salt and black pepper
• 1 medium onion, chopped very fine (almost minced)
• 3 large cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups arborio rice
• 1/2 cup sherry or white wine
• (at least) 5 cups warm chicken or vegetable broth, plus 1 cup more
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil or butter (for flavor)
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
• 2 tbsp dried thyme leaves (or to taste)… oregano and rosemary also probably work nicely
• If you’ve got them, roasted pumpkin seeds or sunflower seed kernels would probably be a delicious addition

So yah, risotto takes a fairly long time to make, it turns out (and I was going to do work today… maybe). It’s not very difficult, but there are a few steps:

1. Heat about a tbsp of oil in a large sautée pan (I used a wok, actually) on medium-low. Toss squash until well coated and cook to desired level of tenderness, add salt if desired. I didn’t cook it too much because I wanted a little resistance to the bite and the fresh, squashy flavor to stand out because it tastes like summer.



2. Remove squash and set aside. Pour oil into your cooking thing until the entire bottom has a shallow coat of oil. Add the onions and cook on medium-low, stirring occasionally, for 15 freaking minutes or until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 2 more minutes.
3. Add the rice and toss until the onions, garlic, and rice are mixed, and the rice is coated with oil.
4. Turn the heat up to medium, and immediately add the booze, mixing well for 1 minute.
5. And now for the fun part! Add broth one cup at a time to the pan, cooking until the liquid has evaporated/been absorbed by the rice. Do this forever, or at least until the rice is done. It can be a little al dente, that’s okay. If you run out of broth (as I did), water works fine (though you might need to adjust the salt later), also you can add a little more booze if you want. Make sure to save at least one cup of broth for the last part! The goal here is just to make sure the rice doesn’t dry out during cooking, so you have to be mixing it CONSTANTLY. You cannot stop. No exceptions.
6. By the end it should have approximately the consistency of well, risotto, or maybe sticky rice if you are more familiar with that. Really, it doesn’t matter an awful lot so long as it tastes grrreat! When it’s reached the desired consistency and rice-cookedness, move it to a large serving/mixing bowl, fold the squash into the risotto, and then add the extra cup of broth, the parmesan, the thyme, and the tasty olive oil or butter (if you’re cheating). Salt and pepper to taste, and voilà: risotto!

Morgan and I ate it with fresh, unadorned cherry tomatoes and—more importantly—wine glasses filled with milk, because we’re classy dudes!