Pumpkin risotto: pumpkin stewed separately until it turns to cream, toasted rice and a final toss with cold butter and Grana. Ready in 55 minutes.
Introduction
Pumpkin risotto is the first course that, in the homes of Northern Italy, marks the arrival of autumn. The ingredients are few and all from the larder: a pumpkin with firm, sweet flesh, rice, stock, butter and Grana. The pumpkin cooks until it falls apart and becomes an orange cream that binds the rice, while the final mantecatura makes it soft and glossy, all'onda. It is a simple dish, but with a typical flaw: it often comes out washed-out, with watery pumpkin and a dull flavour.
The way to avoid it lies in a choice best made at the start. The pumpkin is cooked separately, in a pan, with a drizzle of oil and a few sage leaves, until it loses its water and concentrates its sugar; it goes into the risotto halfway through cooking, already soft, half mashed to a cream and half in small pieces. That way the rice toasts properly, the pumpkin does not boil in the stock, and on the plate you taste its true flavour, almost like chestnut. The rest is risotto technique: hot stock one ladle at a time, and the cold butter only once the heat is off.
In the glass we pour the Traminer IGT from La Caneva dei Biasio, an aromatic white from the Pedemontana Veneta with scents of apricot and tropical fruit, which answers the sweetness of the pumpkin instead of opposing it. To cook the pumpkin we use the Olio Extravergine Veneto del Grappa DOP from Oro de Pòe.
History of Pumpkin Risotto
The pumpkin we cook with today reached Europe from the Americas in the sixteenth century, together with maize, beans and the tomato. Before then, the word «zucca» mostly meant the bottle gourd, which once dried became a water flask. The new pumpkins, with their yellow, sweet flesh, soon adapted to the low, damp land of the Po Valley, and there they became a food of the poor: they kept all winter and were baked in the oven, cooked in soup, used in fillings. That is how the tradition of pumpkin tortelli was born around Mantua, and in Venice that of the suca baruca, the knobbly pumpkin of Chioggia that street vendors sold by the slice, baked, through the calli.
Pumpkin risotto is the child of this story, and of another: that of rice, grown on the plain between Verona, Mantua and Pavia since the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It has no date of birth and no inventor: it is a home dish, born where the two ingredients grew in the same fields, and every province makes it a little its own way. In the Veneto they use the Chioggia pumpkin or the Delica and finish it with butter and Grana; around Mantua they add crumbled amaretti and a spoonful of mostarda (candied fruit in mustard syrup), as in the filling of tortelli. The recipe we offer is the simplest one, which lets the pumpkin speak.
Ingredients
For the pumpkin
- Delica or Marina di Chioggia pumpkin, already cleaned600 g
- Olio Extravergine Veneto del Grappa DOP 500ml2 tablespoons
- sage leaves4
- saltto taste
For the risotto
- Carnaroli or Vialone Nano rice320 g
- white onion, very finely chopped60 g
- butter for the soffritto20 g
- dry white wine100 ml
- hot vegetable stock1200 ml
For the final toss
- fridge-cold butter40 g
- grated Grana Padano60 g
- nutmegto taste
- freshly ground black pepperto taste
Equipment Needed
- Wide, shallow heavy-based casserole
- Wide pan with a lid for the pumpkin
- Pot to keep the stock hot
- Ladle and wooden spoon
- Sturdy knife and chopping board
- Fine grater
Tip: Pumpkin is easier to clean with a sturdy, long-bladed knife than with a peeler: first cut it into thick slices, then lay each slice on the board and remove the skin with straight cuts, from top to bottom. It is safer and wastes less flesh. For the risotto you need a wide, shallow casserole, because the rice must sit in a thin layer: in a tall pot the liquid evaporates slowly and the risotto boils instead of drying out.
How to Make Pumpkin Risotto — Traditional Recipe
The pumpkin
Cut the cleaned pumpkin into one-centimetre dice. Heat the oil in the pan with the sage leaves, add the pumpkin and a pinch of salt, brown it for a couple of minutes, then cover and leave it to cook over a medium-low heat for 15-20 minutes, with a ladle of stock if it sticks, until the dice are soft. Remove the sage and mash half the pumpkin with a fork, leaving the other half in small pieces. Meanwhile bring the stock to just below the boil.
Chef's tip: For the last few minutes take off the lid and let the water evaporate: the pumpkin must reach the risotto dry and concentrated, not wet. It is the pumpkin's water that makes a risotto washed-out.
The toasting
In the casserole melt the 20 g of butter and soften the onion over a gentle heat for five or six minutes, without letting it colour. Raise the flame, pour in the rice and toast it for two or three minutes, stirring, until the grains are hot to the touch and turn translucent at the edges. Deglaze with the white wine and let it evaporate completely, stirring.
Chef's tip: The onion must not go golden: the pumpkin already brings plenty of sweetness, and a browned onion adds more, of caramel, which makes the dish cloying.
The cooking
Add the hot stock one ladle at a time, waiting each time until it is almost absorbed before pouring in more, and stir without fussing. After eight minutes add the pumpkin, both the cream and the pieces, and carry on with the stock. Carnaroli needs 16-18 minutes in all from the first ladle, Vialone Nano 15-16: taste a grain from the fourteenth minute, it should stay just al dente.
Chef's tip: Keep the risotto a little looser than you would want it on the plate: the pumpkin cream thickens, and the rice keeps absorbing even once the heat is off.
The mantecatura
Turn off the heat and wait a minute. Add the cold butter in cubes and the grated Grana, grate in a hint of nutmeg and stir vigorously, or shake the casserole back and forth, until the risotto becomes glossy and creamy. Taste, adjust the salt and pepper, cover and leave to rest for two minutes. Serve it all'onda: it should spread out on the plate by itself.
Chef's tip: Nutmeg should be used with a light hand: a single grating is enough. A pinch too much covers the pumpkin and brings a bitter, medicinal taste.
Wine to Pair with Pumpkin Risotto
Pumpkin risotto is a sweet dish that is not served as a dessert, and the wine should be chosen starting from that contradiction. The pumpkin, cooked at length in the soffritto until it falls apart, brings real sugar into the rice, almost like chestnut, and an orange colour that promises more than it weighs. Around it are the butter of the mantecatura and the Grana, which add fat and savouriness, and usually a spice: a touch of nutmeg, a few sage leaves. In the mouth, then, three things: sweetness, creaminess and a warm aroma. Two rules follow from this. First: tannin stays out, because against the sweetness of the pumpkin a red turns bitter and dry. Second: the wine needs an aroma that matches the dish's, or it disappears. So there are two paths, opposite and both right. You can go along with the sweetness with an aromatic, soft white that answers it by resemblance; or you can contrast it with a fresh, savoury white that cleans the butter and cheese from the mouth with every forkful.
The White We Recommend
Traminer IGT — La Caneva dei Biasio — The **Traminer IGT from La Caneva dei Biasio** is made from Gewürztraminer grapes grown on the slopes of the Pedemontana Veneta and is vinified in steel only, so it reaches the glass with its aromas intact: tropical fruit, apricot and a citrus finish. With pumpkin risotto it is the path of resemblance. Apricot and yellow fruit belong to the same family as cooked pumpkin, and the sweet spice typical of the grape picks up the nutmeg and the sage instead of quarrelling with them: dish and wine answer each other. The sip is dry but soft, and that softness goes along with the creaminess of the mantecatura without friction, while the long citrus finish closes each mouthful and leaves the palate clean. The limit must be stated, and it is the Traminer's: the acidity is restrained, and on a risotto finished with too much butter and too much cheese the softness of the wine adds to that of the dish instead of balancing it. It works best with a measured mantecatura and a well-cooked pumpkin, sweet and dry. At 12% vol it is a white that does not weigh you down: serve it at 10-12 °C, no colder, because below that threshold the aromas close up, and those are exactly what the dish needs.
The Territorial Alternative
Manzoni Bianco Veneto I.G.T. — Italo Cescon — If the Traminer goes along with the pumpkin, the **Manzoni Bianco Veneto I.G.T. from Italo Cescon** contrasts it, and it is the choice for those who prefer a risotto richer in butter and Grana. Incrocio Manzoni is the white the Veneto invented at home, and this one comes from San Polo di Piave, on the plain around Treviso. Its tool is freshness: the sip is lively and savoury, and that savouriness answers the cheese while the acidity lifts the butter from the palate, so the sweetness of the dish does not tire you by the third forkful. Five or six months on the fine lees give it a body the technical sheet calls suave, full enough to stand up to the creaminess of the risotto, and its aroma of citrus, peach and apricot keeps a thread with the pumpkin without chasing it. The same sheet recalls that Venetian tradition wants it with risotto coi sparesi, that is with asparagus: it is a wine for risottos. Its limit is the opposite of the Traminer's: with a very sweet, spiced pumpkin, perhaps with amaretti in the Mantuan style, it stays drier than the dish and picks up less of the spice. At 13,5% vol, serve it at 8-10 °C, in a wide glass.
Want to explore the grape variety? our guide to Manzoni Bianco
Craft Beer as an Alternative
Bratty Blanche Beer — Norah's Farm — A wheat beer with pumpkin risotto works for a precise reason: the spices. The **Bratty Blanche from Norah's Farm**, brewed in the Pedemontana Veneta, is a Belgian-style Blanche flavoured with coriander and orange peel, and those are exactly the two aromas that in the kitchen are set beside pumpkin. The orange brings a citrus note that lightens the sweetness, the coriander talks to the nutmeg and the sage. Wheat and oats give the sip a roundness that goes along with the creaminess of the rice, and the carbonation does the job that acidity does in wine: it carries the butter and the Grana off the palate with every sip. The hops, which the producer marks at zero, add no bitterness, and with a sweet dish that is an advantage. The limit is in the body: at 4,9% vol it is a light beer, and with a very rich risotto, finished generously, it stays a step behind and acts more as a refresher than a companion. Serve it at 6-8 °C, in a tall glass.
Want to explore the style? wheat beers
Variations
- Mantuan style: in the mantecatura you add two or three crumbled amaretti and a spoonful of finely chopped mostarda, as in the filling of pumpkin tortelli. The pear Mostarda from SoloTreviso brings the sharp kick of mustard, a counterpoint to the sweetness of the pumpkin and the amaretti. The result is sweeter and more spiced, and calls for an aromatic wine.
- With sausage: brown 200 g of crumbled sausage, casing removed, together with the onion, before the rice. The fat and savouriness of the meat balance the sweetness of the pumpkin, and the dish becomes a sturdier one-course meal. In this version the Grana can be reduced to 40 g.
- With rosemary instead of sage: a sprig of rosemary in the pumpkin pan, removed before mashing, gives a more resinous, more wintry aroma. Do not use them together: sage and rosemary cover each other.
- The ready-made version: the Rice with pumpkin, sage and rosemary from SoloTreviso is a mix in a jar with Vialone Nano, dried pumpkin, herbs and the stock base already inside. It cooks in hot water in 13-15 minutes: it lacks the creaminess of fresh pumpkin, but it is a pumpkin risotto for the evenings when time is short.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which pumpkin is best for risotto?
A pumpkin with firm, dry, sweet flesh. The **Delica**, small and dark green outside, is the easiest to find and the safest choice; the **Marina di Chioggia**, large and knobbly, is the one of Venetian tradition and has a flavour reminiscent of chestnut. The Mantovana and the Hokkaido also work well. Better to avoid the long squash and decorative pumpkins, whose flesh is watery and bland and makes the risotto washed-out.
Why is the pumpkin cooked separately?
Because pumpkin contains a lot of water. If it is cooked in the soffritto together with the rice, that water ends up in the casserole, the rice does not toast properly and the pumpkin boils in the stock instead of concentrating. Cooked separately in a pan, it loses its water, its sugar concentrates, and it goes into the risotto already soft, halfway through cooking, when stirring is enough to turn it into a cream.
Carnaroli or Vialone Nano?
Both work. **Carnaroli** has a long grain that holds its cooking well and forgives an extra minute, and it is the safest choice. **Vialone Nano**, the rice of the Verona plain, has a round grain that absorbs a lot and releases starch early, so it finishes easily and gives a creamier risotto; it cooks a couple of minutes less and needs watching. Arborio releases too much starch and with the pumpkin cream tends to turn gluey.
Can pumpkin risotto be made ahead?
The pumpkin, yes: it can be cooked even the day before and kept in the fridge, and that is the most convenient way to organise yourself. The finished risotto, on the other hand, does not reheat well. If you need to get ahead, you can cook the rice for about ten minutes, spread it on a cold tray to stop the cooking, and finish it just before serving with the hot stock, the pumpkin and the mantecatura.
Which wine goes with pumpkin risotto?
A white wine, because against the sweetness of the pumpkin the tannin of a red turns bitter. There are two paths. An aromatic, soft white such as a **Traminer** answers the sweetness of the dish with aromas of apricot and yellow fruit. A fresh, savoury white such as a **Manzoni Bianco** contrasts it and cleans the butter and cheese from the mouth. As an alternative, a wheat beer spiced with coriander and orange.
