Pumpkin Amaretto Risotto

I was recently asked by a good friend of mine if I could come up with a recipe for Pumpkin Risotto. I won't mention any names, but this one Italian mamma said that she had fallen in love with this style of risotto when in Italy. I did some research and found a good amount of pumpkin risotto recipes, however most of them were very similar in taste and style. Pumpkin itself can be bland, so you need to add some spice to it to bring out its flavor. Most of the recipes that I found were heavy on the cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg, which are standard pumpkin pie spices. That didn't sound all that Italian to me, and I wasn't aiming for a pumpkin pie flavored risotto.

I finally came across a true Italian pumpkin risotto recipe which follows the traditional Lombard/Northern Italian method and used that as my launching pad, making a few other flavor/ingredient adjustments to my liking. Instead of cinnamon and nutmeg, this recipe called for crumbled up Italian amaretti macaroons. While I don't usually have amaretti macaroons on hand, I do always have a bottle of Disarona Amaretto in my liqueur cabinet. I decided to give that a try, and just one tablespoon added the perfect slightly sweet/slightly nutty taste that I was hoping for! The alcohol will burn off, but the Amaretto taste stays. There's no doubt, this dish will be a fall standard in my house!

A quick note on making risotto: Risotto is a demanding dish and requires the chef to stand next to the pot for the better part of 20 minutes. Turn the rice every 20 seconds or so in order for the liquid to bathe all of the pot. With the high heat your rice will dry out at the bottom and you'll need to move the rice with a wooden spoon so that the remaining stock on top goes to the bottom. Only when the rice is almost dry can you add your next laddleful of stock.

PUMPKIN AMARETTO RISOTTO
Click image on side to enlarge

5 cups hot chicken broth (you cannot use cold broth for proper risotto)
1 tbspn EVOO
4 tbspn butter
1 medium white onion, chopped
1 cup Arborio rice
1 small glass white wine
1-1/2 cups pumpkin puree (canned is fine, but be sure to use 100% pure pumpkin. Do not use pumpkin pie filling)
1 tbspn Amaretto
1 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese

In a medium pot, heat chicken broth (hot but not boiling), keep warm. In a large pot over medium heat, heat olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter. Add onions, saute until soft but not brown. Add rice, mix so all grains are coated, let cook for 2 minutes (it's ok if grains begin to slightly toast). Add wine, toss to coat all grains.

When wine has evaporated, add one ladle of the hot stock. DO NOT ADD MORE THAN 1 LADLE AT A TIME! Stir every 20 seconds or so until rice is almost dry. You'll continue to add one ladle at a time for about 20 minutes.

After the first ten minutes of ladling/stirring, add the pumpkin puree. Stir to mix completely. Continue with the ladling/stirring for another 10 minutes, or until you run out of broth. Add one tablespoon Amaretto, stir.

Cover and remove pot from heat, let sit for one minute. Cut up remaining 3 tablespoons of butter into small pieces. Add to pot, stir to mix completely. You want the risotto to be hot enough to incorporate the butter without actually melting it at contact. Add fresh grated parmesan cheese, stir to mix.

An optional dash of nutmeg to each serving adds a nice touch. Serve with a glass of white wine, or a nice pumpkin ale or Oktoberfest and enjoy!

Fall Favorites

Traditions, as you may have guessed by now, have been a major influence in many of the posts that I share on this blog. It's the excitement and familiarity of annual events, foods and most of all time spent with family and friends that encourage me to write and share my stories and recipes. And now that we have officially entered my favorite time of year, the autumn harvest season, I thought I would share some favorite fall food suggestions with you.


The first weekend of autumn is the time when I prepare my jars of marinated eggplants. I started this tradition a few years back, and posted about it last September (you can click here for the recipe). I was inspired by my grandmother to start jarring eggplants. She would marinate and jar every year at this time so they would be ready for the holidays, so I was determined to keep that family tradition alive. I am very honored to say that this family recipe has garnered the most attention on my blog. To this day I am still getting nice comments about the post, and just a few weeks ago I was contacted by a woman named Lori who has a food blog of her own. Her family also jars eggplants and she was surprised to find that my recipe was almost the same as hers. So thank you Lori for the shout-out. Be sure to check out her fine food blog, Lori's Lipsmacking Goodness.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a pumpkin junkie, so it goes without saying that I'm extra excited to dip into pumpkin foods, both new and traditional. Throughout this season I plan to share recipes for spaghetti squash and pumpkin ravioli. I'm also very excited to have my friend, Emma, share some pumpkin dessert recipes with you as we get closer to Thanksgiving.

Speaking of pumpkin, I have to tip my hat to Rita's Water Ice. The debate will always live on as to who has the best water ice, but in my opinion Rita's Pumpkin Pie and Caramel Apple cream ices are the ideal way to transition from summer to fall. Try going for the pumpkin ice with vanilla custard topping. Nice.

Nothing beats a crisp fall morning than a nice hot cup of coffee. An easy way to add some fall flavor to your next pot of joe is to sprinkle some cinnamon, nutmeg or my favorite, pumpkin pie spice, into your coffee grinds before brewing. If you're a fan of fall spices, you'll love this. Trust me. And what's a nice cup of hot coffee in the fall without a crisp, crunchy spiced wafer to dunk? My family gets a smile from ear to ear when those orange and black boxes start to appear in huge piles at the supermarket. Yeah, I know...they're sold year round. I don't pay attention to them until they're stacked a mile high in front of the store.

Wanna kick up your spiced wafers to dessert level? Add a smear of cream cheese. And if you're really in the mood for a treat, add a little bit of pumpkin butter on top of that. Fuggetaboutit!!!

Now I wouldn't be able to discuss fall foods without mentioning my new favorite seasonal treat — autumn beers. I have quickly learned to love the full-bodied, rich, toasty, typically dark copper beers that make their seasonal appearance, usually starting in late August. Each year, more and more brewers are jumping on the popularity of dunkel (dark) lagers, Oktoberfests and pumpkin ales. The beauty of it is that each brewer adds their own little twist or spin on the styles, so each version has it's own distinctive taste and the beer drinker benefits from the variety. I like to have a variety of each style on hand, but this year I hit the jackpot with the Samuel Adams Harvest Collection. It contains six different styles of beer, including Harvest Pumpkin Ale and what is one of my seasonal staples, their Octoberfest (yes, they spell it with a 'c'). So if you're interested in sampling seasonal brews, this is the best time of year to do so. Have fun, mix up the varieties and enjoy (and most of all, be safe).

Happy fall!