I'm pleased to report that, with some significant help from my dad, I was able to make a delicious dish last night with perfectly cooked risotto. As you may remember, my last try at risotto ended tragically, so I was sure to observe my dad carefully as he prepared the risotto and take good notes.

I began the night following a recipe by Claire, of Claire's Corner Copia restaurant in New Haven. Unfortunately, the recipe left several questions unanswered and called for an absurd amount of arborio rice (6 cups) to stuff only 4 acorn squash. We decided to make only 1-1/2 cups of the rice, which proved to be more than enough, and changed many other aspects of the recipe (including leaving out several ingredients... by accident). I think it's fair to say that the end product was really our design, not Claire's.

So here goes:







Acorn Squash with Rice and Vegetable Stuffing (derived from Claire's recipe)

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 sweet onion, finely chopped
1 cup finely chopped broccoli florets
1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 cup arborio rice
vegetable Herbox cubes to make broth
4 acorn squash, cut in half, seeded

Preheat oven to 450.
Heat olive oil and butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, broccoli, carrot, and tomato. Sautee for five minutes.
Add rice, sautee 2 minutes.
Boil water, prepare 3 cups of vegetable broth using Herbox cubes.
Add one cup of broth. Stir rice mixture, allow to simmer, let rice absorb broth.
Keep adding broth, always leaving some liquid in rice mixture (don't let it dry out).
Taste to make sure rice is soft. If not, add more broth.
Add in pine nuts.
Divide stuffing among squash halves. Fill a large baking pan with two cups water and arrange the squash halves in it.
Cover pan tightly with foil, tenting foil as needed.
Bake for about 1-1/4 hours, until the squash is fork tender.
Rejoice in your success at making risotto!

Serves four with some leftovers.