This feels like quite a Christmassy dish to me! Adding bacon is optional (it works really well without it but if you want a bit more protein go ahead and put some in!)

Roasting the garlic brings out a much stronger flavour so if you don’t want to overpower it use 2 rather than 4 cloves.

Risotto, when cooled, gets very sticky which makes it much easier for babies to grab handfuls of it before sucking it off their fingers etc!

Ingredients-

1 butternut squash

3-4 cloves of garlic

Olive oil

Bunch of Sage

2 small onions

Optional- smoky bacon or lardons

300g risotto (arborio) rice

Glass of white wine

1 litre of vegetable stock

Butter

2-3 tablespoons of mascarpone

Peel and de-seed the butternut squash before cutting into small cubes. Peel the garlic cloves but leave them whole.

Put the butternut squash and garlic into a roasting pan and drizzle over a little olive oil then pop into a preheated oven at 180 degrees for around 30mins.

Meanwhile dice the onions and roughly chop the sage

In a large pan heat a tablespoon of oil

Cook the onions on a medium low heat until soft (5-8mins)

If you’re adding bacon/ lardons add these now and turn up the heat and cook until done

Add the risotto rice and cook for a minute

Add a glass of wine and stir through until it’s all absorbed

Start to add the stock- a ladle worth at a time- and stir constantly as the rice absorbs the moisture. Repeat over and over until the rice looses its bite.

Around 10mins before the end of cooking the butternut squash throw the sage into the roasting pan so it roasts for 10mins

Put around half of the roasted squash in a blender with all of the garlic and sage.

Blend together into a rough paste

Add the paste to the risotto and stir through

Add the rest of the butternut squash and the mascarpone and stir through until it’s all melted in.

You can also add a knob of butter at this point if you like.

Serve with plenty of black pepper on top!