PUMPKIN, SAFFRON AND VERMOUTH RISOTTO

It's close to 30 years since I first tasted risotto. It was a champagne risotto in a restaurant in Mantova. I fell in love. Not the heavy breathing, lost for words kind. But unmistakably lerve. As soon as I returned from that trip, I cooked my first risotto. I think it might have been fennel. That is still one of my favourites. Since then I have done crab (another fave), porcini, pea, asparagus, pumpkin, beetroot, spring vegetables, seafood, squid ink ... well basically every possible variant. Our lovely elderly neighbours have been giving us pumpkins off their land lately. So I am making pumpkin soup, roasted pumpkin and tonight this risotto. Really rich Iranian saffron and a good splash of dry Noilly Prat.

PUMPKIN, SAFFRON AND VERMOUTH RISOTTO