Ingredients
½ squash or ¼ pumpkin * 
1 ½ litres of chicken stock, in a pan keeping hot 
1 tbsp olive oil 
1 onion, chopped finely 
300g risotto rice 
45g butter 
100g Parmesan, grated 
Salt 
Pepper 
3 slices of prosciutto (optional)

Method
Preheat the oven to 180c. 

Cut up the squash or pumpkin into smallish cubes, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and put into the oven to roast.  You need to shake the squash from time to time so it becomes golden on all sides. Also put into the oven the prosciutto if you are using for 10 minutes until really crispy.

While the squash is cooking, put the stock into a saucepan on a low/medium heat.  Heat the oil in a large dish (I use my le Creuset pot but a large frying pan would also work) 

Cook the onion on a medium heat and cook until cooked and translucent-3-5 minutes.  Put the rice in and thoroughly coat with the oil and mix with the onions.  Turn up the heat to high medium and add a ladle of the hot stock. You now need to just agitate the pot and stir again - the agitation stops the need to use the spoon as much and there is less risk of breaking the grains.

You now need to add a ladle of stock when the liquid all goes, the tricky thing is you don’t want it to go too dry as you don’t want it to stick.  The mixture should be just bubbling continuously.  Keep going - this process will take anywhere between 20-30 minutes depending on the rice and the heat.  You know it is done when you have only a little stock left and the rice is just cooked through, it should not be chalky at all.  If you run out of stock you can add a little boiling water, you should not need it but if you do just add a little at a time, the water will obviously reduce the chicken flavour so you don’t want to add more than you need to. 

Take the risotto off of the heat and stir through the butter, 80g of Parmesan and the remaining stock. Check the seasoning, it should be perfect but if it is not, add a little salt. 

Stir through the squash. Serve topped with a little Parmesan and a crack of black pepper, If you are using the prosciutto then crumble this over the top.

Enjoy hot, risotto waits for no man ;-)

- This recipe was adapted from a recipe taken from Harry’s Bar Cookbook