Shane usually goes to his studio on Wednesday nights, but not tonight. Since he was going to be around, I asked him to take care of dinner.
He told me he’d pick up a pizza, and I was fine with that. When he came home, he set about making Saffron Risotto with Butternut Squash, and I was even more fine with that. I knew it meant we’d be eating late (and we did—8pm on a school night), but it was well worth the wait.
The risotto was delicious, big chunks of sweet, roasted butternut in creamy, saffrony, savory, arborio rice. It’s hard to go wrong with an Ina Garten recipe, and Shane is a great cook too.
If you make this, go easy on the salt, particularly if you use pecorino instead of parmesan, you can always add more salt later. It would be very easy to make this vegetarian by skipping the pancetta, and substituting vegetable Better Than Bouillon or vegetable broth for the chicken broth.
