Butternut Squash Risotto

Why This Butternut Squash Risotto Works

At the start, the onion and garlic sit in the warm oil long enough to soften and lose their sharp bite. The rice goes in dry and firm, and coating it in the hot oil keeps the outside a bit protected so it doesn’t fall apart later. When the wine hits the pan, the rice starts to drink it in, and the grains begin to swell.

As the warm broth goes in, a little at a time, the rice keeps soaking up liquid and rubbing against itself while it is stirred. That rubbing scrapes starch off the outside of the grains, and the starch mixes with the broth and turns it thick and creamy. The butternut squash cubes cook slowly in that starchy liquid, so they soften all the way through without breaking down into mush.

Near the end, the butter and Parmesan slide into the hot rice and melt. They fill the spaces between the grains and squash, so everything holds together in a loose, creamy spoonful instead of a dry pile of rice.

Mistakes To Avoid

Letting the heat get too high while adding the broth makes the liquid boil hard instead of gently simmer. The rice surface tightens and the liquid evaporates too fast, so the grains stay firm in the center while the outside gets mushy, and the pan can scorch on the bottom.

Adding the butternut squash at the very beginning or at the very end throws off the texture. When it goes in too early, the cubes break down completely and disappear into a baby-food-like mash; when it goes in too late, the rice is soft but the squash is still hard in the middle.

Skipping the step of toasting the Arborio rice in oil leaves the grains fragile. As the broth goes in, the rice sheds too much starch at once, so the risotto turns gluey and clumpy instead of creamy with separate, tender grains.

Dumping in all the broth at once instead of ladle by ladle stops the rice from releasing starch slowly. The mixture cooks more like plain boiled rice, so the liquid stays thin at the bottom and the rice ends up soupy rather than thick and silky.