Butternut Improved
I tried the butternut squash risotto again last night. It was much better this time, sweeter and richer with more depth. What was the difference?
- Half of the broth was fennel broth I made the other night. The other half was chicken (from a box: I'm drawing down supplies before the New Zealand expedition).
- The recipe uses a lot of wine -- 1.5c. I used some Lindeman's chardonnay, also left over. From my earlier comments, the wine's acidity balances the squash's sweetness, but this wine isn't striking acidic.
- It's a lot later in the season, so perhaps the squash was a bit sweeter.
- It was a big squash.
I had forgotten how fussy this recipe is, even allowing for the Cook's shortcut of adding half the broth at once. The little preliminary steps -- cleaning and chopping the squash, browning the squash, sauteeing the seeds -- don't look like much on paper but they do push dinner toward the late side.