Rich, creamy Italian rice dish made with flavors of bacon, shallots, and pumpkin. This amazing rice dish might be a little time consuming but is it absolutely worth it. You will be enjoying this wonderful, hearty Bacon, Onion and Pumpkin Risotto within an hour.
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Don’t be scared! Yes, this is a risotto recipe but I promise, risotto is not a scary dish. There are a few simple ingredients and the steps are basically adding liquid and stirring.
Pouring yourself a glass of wine while preparing this dish will make the time fly by. You will already have a bottle of wine open and available after all!
I absolutely adore risotto and I often make it as a special occasion dinner, or a date night dinner.
Many people are scared of making risotto at home. The long list of steps sounds complicated but it truly comes down to adding some liquid and stirring, adding liquid and stirring, adding liquid and stirring.
Risotto may be finicky because it does want a little bit of liquid at a time to absorb and not all at once, but other than that, it’s not complicated. The results are absolutely worth every second.
Grab a glass of wine, and enjoy the process of making the risotto as much as you will enjoy eating it!
Tips for making this Bacon, Onion and Pumpkin Risotto:
- For any risotto (or pasta, or other rice dish that is saucy) where I use bacon, I like to pick out a meaty bacon. Less fat and more meat. The reason for is simple, if bacon has too much fat and it does not crisp up evenly on each fatty piece, you will have soggy bacon fat pieces.
- The most important tip for making risotto is using hot stock/broth. The main mistake people make while cooking risotto is using cold stock. That lowers the temperature of your dish each time you add stock and rice doesn’t cook evenly.
- What I like to do is set a small pot on another burner and heat up all the stock. Once the stock starts to simmer, turn the heat down to low to keep it warm while you’re cooking risotto.
- I also like to season the stock while it’s heating up so that salt and pepper is already there each time I add more stock to risotto.
Can I replace wine with non-alcoholic option?
- Yes. Wine can be left out of this pumpkin risotto recipe or any other risotto recipe. It will alter the flavor but you won’t enjoy it any less. You can simply use extra chicken or vegetable stock instead of wine.
- Adding some cooking wine (non-alcoholic) just for flavor is another option. Personally, I am not a fan of how cooking wine tastes so I would just use extra stock but if you don’t mind the taste of cooking wine, that could be another option for you.
IF YOU LIKE THIS PUMPKIN RISOTTO, HERE ARE SOME MORE RECIPES YOU WILL LIKE:
Spicy Three Cheese Tortellini Bake – This delightful tortellini bake is made with a creamy pumpkin sauce and loaded with gooey cheese.
Creamy Tomato Basil Risotto – simple dish and it has that classic tomato basil flavor that everyone enjoys. This dish is simple and takes about 45 minutes, so it can be done any time of the week.
Chicken Fajita Stuffed Peppers – dinner is made with red and green bell peppers, stuffed with fajita marinated grilled chicken and Spanish rice mixture.
HERE ARE SOME MORE RECIPES FOR YOU:
Chicken Bacon Pumpkin Pasta Bake – Pinch of Yum
Pumpkin Ricotta Gnocchi – Simply Recipes
Pumpkin Dinner Rolls – Tastes of Lizzy T
Pumpkin Alfredo Sauce – Yellow Bliss Road
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Bacon Onion and Pumpkin Risotto
Ingredients
- 6 oz bacon pick meaty bacon
- 7 oz shallots about 3 large shallots
- 1 cup Arborio rice
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
- salt
- fresh cracked black pepper
Instructions
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Dice bacon into small pieces and slice shallots into thin slices.
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Add all stock to a small pot and bring it to simmer. Lower heat to lowest setting to keep it warm while cooking the risotto. Season stock with salt and black pepper.
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Heat up a large cooking pan over medium-high heat.
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Add bacon to the pan and saute for a few minutes, mixing it often.
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Add sliced shallots and saute bacon and shallots until nicely deep golden brown. Stir often to make sure it's cooked evenly. (This will take about 10 minutes, depending on thickness of bacon.)
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Lower heat to medium.
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Stir in Arborio rice and saute it with bacon and onions for a couple of minutes, stirring often.
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Add wine and stir. Let rice absorb the wine as it cooks, stirring once in a while.
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Once rice absorbs the liquid, add 1 cup of prepared stock. Stir and cook until rice absorbs the liquid.
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Stir in pumpkin puree.
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Add another cup of stock, stir and let rice cook until it absorbs the liquid.
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Continue adding liquid a little bit at a time and letting rice absorb it until rice is cooked.
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Take off heat and serve.
Recipe Notes
All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe. Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have a slight variation.
Delightful! Please share this with the Food on Friday crowd over at Carole’s Chatter. Cheers
Perfect week dinner for perfect time of a year ! Thank you !