Pumpkin and Ham Risotto

One of my favourite quotes on food belong to Miguel de Cervantes when he stated that ''All sorrows are less with bread''.

As sceptical as that might sound, I do believe it's true. No matter how quickly the world is going by, regardless of morning, day or night, there comes a standstill when time is simply just devoted to the pure, essential need to eat. People stuff themselves silly with chocolate when life does a 180 flip. Others go for junk food, sweets, weird cravings or anything which just about forms the theory of food.

Recently things haven't been going well with my life. Maybe it's a wake-up call from God, maybe I haven't been cooking very frequently, or maybe I neglected this blog for awhile. Whatever the case, life goes on. Speaking about sorrows, I decided to pull my remaining energy to make a comforting meal - Risotto. A meal much loved by Italians for a fact. I've always longed to make risotto centuries ago, but never got to fulfill this plan of mine. But no, I wasn't deterred by the thought of having to stay by the stove and keep stirring the rice for eons. Hell, I could stay by the stove for over 2 hours if the stove will have me.



Pumpkin and ham risotto wasn't so much a combination I was inclined upon. The grocery pretty much only had pumpkin (when I wanted asparagus) and ham was a nice addition for a nice meaty bite. For a first-timer, my risotto was surprisingly not bad. The flavours of the ham and pumpkin came together nicely, like they were meant for each other. The only regret was it should have been a little wet and runny in texture but got a little tad dry towards the cooking process. Just a warning, the ham can be quite salty so you might want to use a salt-reduced stock or make your own stock so that it doesn't become overly salty.

Pumpkin and Ham Risotto (serves 2)

200-250ml arborio rice
1 small yellow onion
600-700ml chicken/veg stock (salt-reduced)
3 slices of ham
1/4-1/2 small pumpkin
olive oil
parmesan (or any good hard cheese)
unsalted butter
salt & pepper to taste

Pour the stock into a pot, heating it, while letting it simmer.
With a knife and a chopping board, finely dice the onion. Set it aside.
Slice the pumpkin into fairly medium blocks/cubes. Set it aside.
Chop up the ham into squares. Set aside.
Heat up a good large pot, pour a good glug of olive oil in and when it gets medium to medium-high hot, add the diced onions. Fry the onions for a good 1-2 minutes or so or until the onions turn fairly soft. Don't let the onions burn though.
Pour in the arborio rice and toast the grains, letting each one of them get coated with the oil and onions for about 2-3 minutes. At this point, you can add a glass of white wine if you want.
With the simmering stock, add a ladleful to the rice and stir, letting it get absorbed before adding another. Mix in the pumpkin. You'd want to keep stirring and adding ladlefuls of stock until the rice is fully cooked through (roughly about 15-20 minutes). About 5-6 minutes towards the end, add the squares of ham.
When the risotto is just about right, add a few cubes of unsalted butter and about a 100g of grated parmesan. Turn off the heat and mix the butter and cheese in until it gets rich and creamy.

Serve immediately and enjoy.