Day 5 Dinner: Butternut Squash and Leek Risotto

Dear Reader, you may have gathered that we have eaten well these past five days. We've also eaten a lot of poultry. Chicken kebabs, chicken stew, chicken sausage, duck. Tonight I decided to break away from the winged theme with a roasted butternut squash, leek, and sage risotto. And because we are not vegetarians, we couldn't help adding a little bacon as well.

The dish took about an hour and a lot of stirring to make (it was a risotto, after all), and it was absolutely incredible. I departed from the recipe quite a bit: I replaced half the chicken broth with mushroom broth (we try to keep homemade stock in the freezer, but we're out, and I was concerned about the sodium content in packaged broth; I soaked some dried porcini mushrooms in boiling water and used the liquid, whch added a nice flavor to the risotto). I substituted a small amount of butter for the cream at the end. And, of course, I cooked up a couple pieces of beautiful farmer's market bacon and sprinkled them on top.

The risotto was a wonderful mix of contrasting flavors: sweet, savory, complex. I am sure that a vegetarian version with vegetable broth would be wonderful too, but we thought that the bacon was a great counterpoint for the sweet squash and the sage. I can't wait for the leftovers.