Pumpkin Risotto - great veggie broth idea

Its pumpkin season here in the US - they seem to be everywhere. I bought a slice with the intention of making something South Indian, but I found I had a craving for something smooth and cheesy and slightly sweet and utterly comforting. Risotto it is.

The base of risotto is a special kind of rice, arborio, which is a short grained starchy variety. The rice is cooked with gradual addition of the cooking liquid, all the better to coax out that starch. The flavourings are whatever you like and the dish is finished with a good dusting of cheese, preferable good parmesan (NOT from a green can).

My introduction to 'real' Italian food was in graduate school where one of my closest friends was an insane and insanely intelligent Italian guy and his on-again-off-again girlfriend. They introduced me to the concept of 'al-dente' pasta, vodka sauce, bruschetta, mozzarella-in-carozza and many other yummy things. Till then, I thought I was pretty fancy, washing my pasta in cold water after cooking to prevent it from sticking, but from them I learnt that this is heresy, starch is your friend and helps the sauce adhere to the pasta.

Same thing with risotto, starch is your friend, however overcooked rice is not. It needs to be just cooked, read the recipe for more on this.

Every risotto recipe seems to ask for broth and I never have any, so I made up my own flavouring liquid which really worked out well.

Ingredients

water
bay leaves
thyme

pumpkin
onion
garlic
arborio rice
parmesan cheese

butter
sage leaves

Method

Peel the pumpkin and cut it into 1/4 inch cubes. Cook it till soft with a little water and salt.

Bring about 4 cups of water to boil (for about a cup of arborio rice) and add a few bay leaves and a bunch of thyme. Reduce it to a simmer and keep it hot.

Finely mince half a shallot and couple of cloves of garlic. Heat butter in a pan and add the onions and garlic. Cook on a low flame till softened but not coloured. Add the pumpkin and the rice. Add a cup and a half of the spiced water, salt and pepper to taste. Stir everything together and cook on medium heat.

After this, every two or three minutes, when the rice has absorbed most of the liquid, stir and add a couple more tablespoons of spiced water. Cook the risotto this way till the rice is cooked to your liking. Start tasting the rice in about 15 minutes. Basically, as soon as the rice is no longer hard in the center, it is done.

Take off the heat, stir in a good handful of grated parmesan.

As a lovely garnish, heat a tablespoon of butter in a pan and once melted, add a few sage leaves. Let the butter brown. Top each portion of the risotto with some of the butter and a sage leaf or two.