
At this time of year our vegetable garden is mostly brimming with tomatoes and courgettes but the raised bed at the bottom has a nice crop of butternut squash grown, known as zucca in Italy. So for lunch today I picked the biggest squash, a red onion and some sage, roasted the squash with the sage while I cooked the onion in some butter and threw in some pancetta, then added risotto rice, chucked in some leftover white wine and ladled in hot stock which neatly finished cooking just as the squash was golden brown. I then mashed half the squash and stirred it into the rice, adding the best chunks whole and mixing it in with lots of grated parmesan. Delicious – buon appetito!