Risotto is one of my go-to recipes. Sometimes there is a specific kind that I plan ahead, sometimes it is a question of using up what's in the fridge. This one was a bit of both. I've used chestnuts in risotto before (check out my Caramel Chestnut Risotto), but I wanted to do something a little different and a little more savoury. We had a local pork sausage in the fridge, so I decided to see how well the two flavours would marry. Chestnuts always hold special emotional associations for me, reminding me of Christmas magic and family time, so anything with chestnuts to me, is the ultimate comfort food! All the more so when it is a stick-to-your-ribs risotto for a cold evening. And now that chestnuts are available frozen, my desire for such food doesn't have to be limited to November and December (although admittedly November is a cold, grey month needing all the cheer it can get!) Warning: the amount of rice is a bit of a guesstimate on this one. Add liquid slowly, so that there is not too much. If need be, add a little extra liquid. Recipe Cook time: approx 50 minutes -- Servings: 6-8 ( depending on size) -- Cooking level: Easy Ingredients: 2 tbsp olive oil 1 head garlic, minced 3 1/2 - 4 c arborio rice 4 c beef stock 2 c pork sausage, chopped 8 carrots, chopped 1 tbsp sage 1 tsp tarragon 2 tsp thyme 1 1/2 c red cooking wine 2 c water (if needed) 1 c milk 1 1/2 - 2 c roasted chestnuts, halved or quartered 1/2 c soft cheese, in pieces ( I used a tomme vaudoise, similar to a Brie, but local) Optionally, accompany with: sumac, apple sauce, cranberry sauce, walnuts 1) In a heavy-bottomed pot, heat the olive oil. Stir in the garlic and fry for 30 seconds until fragrant. Add the rice and stir for another minute or two, until the grains turn translucent. Be careful not to burn them! Add the stock and bring to a simmer, stirring. 2) Meanwhile, in a saucepan, fry the sausage and the carrots (if your sausage is not rendering, then add a little olive oil here). Add the herbs. Cook until the carrots are fork-tender, then set aside. 3) Once the rice has absorbed the stock, still stirring, add the wine and continue to simmer. Once that is absorbed, stir in the veg and sausage, the chestnuts and the milk, allowing the flavours to marry as the last of the liquid is absorbed. When almost all the liquid is gone, stir in the cheese. 4) Serve hot, and accompany with toasted walnuts, cranberry sauce, apple sauce or simply a sprinkling of sumac. (we tried all four, individually or in combinations and greatly enjoyed them). We really enjoyed this. I like risottos (risotti?) anyway, but wasn't entirely sure how the different flavours would marry. I was working on a hunch and on the principle of the sniff and taste test as you go method. It worked! Everyone really enjoyed it. The leftovers, we fried up as simple arancini balls in the air fryer, some with a little cranberry or cheese centre, some with some breading on the outside. While those were nice, though, they weren't necessary. Just the simple leftover risotto fried up in balls was tasty. On a smaller scale, the arancini would work as nibbles for party food. Just a thought... I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

making my own ricotta, I wanted the flavour of the ricotta to get a chance to shine, and felt that in a traditional

As mentioned in Day 53 of The Challenge This is the first recipe I learned to make myself, and I was very proud as a young teen to have been the one to introduce it to the family rotation. I originally got it from a cookbook, but it has evolved quite significantly since then, and it has truly become mine over the years. It is a very simple, very easy dish with a surprising amount of flavour for the effort that goes into it. It can be served with any number of different things, including bread, rice, polenta or pasta. This time we served it with steamed greens and polenta. There are a number or ways of making polenta. For this, as the chicken dish is rich and acidic, I went with a creamy polenta, cooking it in milk rather than broth, water or wine. Ingredients: 2 chickens, dismembered 2 heads of garlic 6-8 potatoes, smashed 5-6 tomatoes 2-3 lemons, sliced the juice of 1 lemon 1 c white wine 3-4 tbsp olive oil 2-3 sprigs of thyme salt and pepper to taste For the polenta: 1 tbsp butter 1 1/2 c coarse corn meal 3-4 c milk salt and pepper to taste 1) Place the dismembered chickens parts in a large oven proof dish. Scatter the garlic cloves still in their paper around the chicken. Tuck the smashed potatoes under the chicken pieces. (Smashing them allows the chicken juices to penetrate better to the centre of the potato, cooking it from the inside as well as the outside). Tuck the tomatoes in on top, and place then the lemon slices over everything. 2) Drizzle the lemon juice, olive oil and white wine evenly over the top, then salt and pepper to taste. Place the thyme sprigs on top. 3) Bake at 180°C for 35-45 minutes, until the skin is a crispy golden brown and the chicken juices run clear. 4) Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the corn meal and stir. Once the corn meal is all coated and the colour has deepened, add the milk. Stir (almost) constantly as the polenta thickens. Salt and pepper to taste, and serve with the chicken. Simple satisfying and balanced, this is one of my favourite meals! I hope you enjoy it too!

Littler Bit has arrived, spelling the end of a rather tough pregnancy. My body and energy levels are bouncing back, but not so my sleep schedule. I now have a toddler and a newborn to contend with, so we'll see what effect this has on my cooking going forward. My sister, she of the Variations on a Theme recipes, is staying with us to help for a while. Shortly after arriving she mentioned having seen an idea somewhere for a rainbow lasagna, but without actually looking at what it entailed. We have since spent the last few days bouncing ideas around and decided to try our own version tonight. Well received by all (except Little Bit, who as a toddler, objects to various elements of his food touching each other, a necessity in lasagna), so here it is. It is maybe an intimidating ingredient list, but assembly is very quick! Caution: the quantities below resulted in about two complete lasagna pans-worth -- about double what we had intended. This worked out well, as we now have ready-made leftovers. Reduce all ingredients except cheese and red pepper for a single dish. Ingredients: 2 beets, peeled and sliced 1 1/2c ricotta 2 c spinach (or 2 large cubes of frozen spinach) 3/4 c tinned tomato 1 c black beans - cooked or tinned 1 large eggplant, thinly sliced 2 zucchinis, thinly sliced 2 c butternut squash purée* (from roasted squash scooped out of its skin) 1 tbsp butter, melted 2 red bell peppers, quartered lengthwise 2c grated cheese (we used gruyère- and raclette-type cheese leftover in the fridge) 1/3 c mascarpone 1/4 c whey, milk, or stock (we used whey) ~6 lasagna sheets 1 tsp sumac 2 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp urfa biber 1/2 tsp allspice 2 tsp sage 1 tsp thyme 1/2 tsp tarragon Handful of pomegranate seeds Salt and Pepper to taste * Could be replaced with pumpkin purée, either homemade or tinned (if you have the good fortune to live in a place where that is available to you). 1) Steam beets until al dente. Blitz with just enough whey, milk or stock to allow the blender to run smoothly. Add spinach, sage, thyme, tarragon and 1c ricotta. Set aside. 2) In a bowl, mix squash purée with 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, allspice and sumac. Add mascarpone and remaining ricotta. Set aside. 3) In another bowl, roughly mash up black beans with tomatoes, and add the urfa biber and remaining half teaspoon of cinnamon. 4) Brush a baking dish with melted butter. Line the bottom of the dish with lasagna sheets and brush with butter again. Spread beans and tomato mixture in a thin layer over the lasagna sheets and cover with eggplant slices. Spread a layer of the beet mixture and arrange a layer of zucchini sliced over the top. Sprinkle on a layer of grated cheese and then spread the squash mix, followed by the red pepper and another layer of cheese. Sprinkle pomegranate seeds over the top and grind a generous amount of black pepper. 5) Bake at 180° C/350°F for 45-60 minutes. Seve hot (with a nice glass of red if so inclined). We were very pleased with how this came out! Once his portion was deconstructed, even the toddler consented to have some. The consistency was a little goopy, resulting in a tendency to flow, rather than come out in nice squares. For structural integrity purposes, we should have used thinner layers of the puree, but we thought this would have been to the detriment of flavour -- after all, this is a meal, not an engineering project! The squash layer, taste-tested prior to assembly, would be great to experiment with as the filling for a pie! It was sweet and dessert-y, with warm flavour notes and a rich, creamy texture. We had intended to add orange zest to either the squash layer or the final layer, but forgot. In terms of eating the rainbow, this tasted great, but the green and blue sort of got lost. To truly eat the rainbow, we would need to devise a green/blue layer that held its own a little better without overshadowing the others. For example, a layer of beet greens over the zucchini. As a side note, the ricotta in this was homemade last week, as I had wanted to try freezing the ricotta. We defrosted it for this dish and found that it held its flavour well, although its texture was slightly grainier. This is a good solution for keeping ricotta on hand, as long as you don't need a smooth, whipped texture. This could easily be made gluten-free, by simply omitting the pasta layer, which we included primarily for structural-integrity purposes.

Day 37 of The Challenge (I lied. We cooked tonight rather than eating leftovers before leaving on our trip). We roasted the last of our Georgia candy roaster pumpkin this evening, and had 250g of chanterelles left. It was either pumpkin pasta with a mushroom sauce or risotto. We opted for the risotto, and the pumpkin pasta will have to wait (although not to long. I do so love it and it had been a little while since I pulled out my pasta maker). This was creamy and filling (and orange) and very tasty. Ingredients: 250 g of Arborio rice 1 1/2 c roasted pumpkin in chunks 3 onions, chopped 1/2 head of garlic, peeled and chopped 250 g of chanterelles 3 tbsp olive oil 1 c of milk 1 1/2 - 2 c of water, broth or reserved mushroom water (like from prepping a chanterelle tart) 1 1/2 tsp sumac 1 tbsp lime juice 2 tsp thyme 1 tsp sage 1 tsp urfa biber (Turkish black chilli pepper) salt and pepper to taste Parmesan for sprinkling 1) Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a frying pan and sauté onions. When they go translucent and then begin to char a little on the bottom, add in the garlic and then keep them moving. 2) Heat the rest of the olive oil in a saucepan and add the rice. Stir until translucent then add the water/mushroom water/broth. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is absorbed. Add milk and stir. 3) Once garlic is soft, add the chanterelles, the thyme and the sage and lower the heat. Cook gently, allowing the mushrooms to give off their liquid. 4) As the rice cooks and absorbs the liquid, add the pumpkin and stir. Add sumac, and once the milk is absorbed, add lime juice and urfa biber. 5) When the rice has thickened and cooked, add the mushrooms and onions to the rice and mix. Salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle desired parmesan over the top. Super tasty. I love making risotto and find them relatively quick and easy once you figure them out. They are endlessly adaptable too. The flavours played off each other beautifully in this tonight. It would have worked with bacon, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that it lost out by not having any.

I don't think I've made rösti since last year when my Non-Traditional 6 Veg Rösti was my first post on I do enjoy a traditional rösti, but all too often I find it too stodgy and heavy, and just too greasy It is an endlessly adaptable dish if you allow yourself to be unbound from strict tradition...

With autumn mists and fall harvest fruits and vegetables available, I've been enjoying taking advantage as much as possible of what's on offer. Planning a white lasagna, I was excited to realise that I had part of a pumpkin that needed using and some apples in the fruit bowl. I wasn't sure how it was going to go, but seeing as everyone at the table (including someone who is not Hubby and therefore is less biased) had seconds, I thought it was probably worth posting. For this, I specially grilled a chicken in the air fryer (I love how easy that was) but normally I would have used leftover chicken from a roast dinner or something. Ingredients: 2 - 2 1/2 c chicken, shredded 3 onions (small) diced 2 apples, diced 2 c spinach or (2 cubes frozen spinach) 2 tbsp butter 1 tbsp sage 1 tsp orange peel 1 - 2 c whey 1 tsp sumac 1/4 c butter 1 zucchini, thinly sliced along its length 1 2 inch pumpkin wedge, thinly sliced 2 1/2 c ricotta 1 1/2 c parmesan, grated Lasagna sheets 1 tomato, sliced 1) In a saucepan, melt the butter then sweat the onions. Add apple, spinach, sumac, orange peel and sage and cook until apple is beginning to soften. Add chicken and enough whey to moisten but not drown the sauce. 2) Melt remaining butter. Brush an ovenproof dish and begin layering: zucchini, chicken and apple sauce, pumpkin, pasta brushed with butter, ricotta, parmesan, repeat. End on a layer of ricotta, parmesan and then sliced tomatoes. 3) Bake at 180°C for about 45minutes until a knife goes in easily and the top is golden and molten. This was really tasty, but I made it a little too wet. I have a bit of a hard time judging the right level of moistness in a white lasagna sauce. It was just right on the second go when we reheated it though! I had thought of using apple sauce in the chicken sauce instead of the whey (which, incidentally, you can replace with stock if you don't have whey lying around), but decided not to this time. I had also considered adding some warm autumnal spicing, given that I was using pumpkin and apple, but didn't. Maybe next time.

For our next Variations on a Theme collaboration with my sister and our friend Hibiscus Kook, the prompt was Tomato Pasta. Check out below where each of us went with that! Konjac Cherry tomato Pasta by Hibiscus Kook This recipe is gluten-free and vegan friendly Creamy Cauliflower Ravioli in a Vodka Tomato Sauce by my Sister Tomato and Whipped Feta Ravioli with a Tomato and Aubergine Sauce by Me This was another fun collaboration for our Variations on a Theme. Watch this space for the next one! In case you want to try making these but don't have a pasta machine, pasta tree or ravioli cutter, click on the links to get one of your own! As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Lent, being a period of fasting, prayer and penance leading to Easter in the Catholic faith, is traditionally Shrove Tuesday was therefore a good time to use up eggs and fats which remained, and so pancakes became traditional Shrove Tuesday, and certainly eat them at other times of the year, but once in a while, it is a fun tradition

In light of rising energy prices and all, these are supposed to be more efficient than traditional ovens