Baked Butternut Squash Risotto

UPDATE:  Made this tonight and used roasted sweet potatoes instead of butternut squash.  We liked it better!  Nothing changed about the recipe except substituting the sweet potatoes for the squash.

Yes, I know risotto isn't supposed to be baked but I just wanted to see if it would work, and it does.  I used my new beautiful blue Dutch oven since it goes from the stove into the oven.  The risotto came out creamy and delicious and was so satisfying on a cold night.

I bought my butternut squash at Costco already cubed, which saves a lot of time.  I roasted it the day before so it would be ready when I got home from work.

I normally never eat white rice, but I make the exception for this dish.  You must use a short-grain, high-starch rice or the risotto will not turn out creamy.  The best one is Arborio but you can use Carnaroli too.  So worth it.

1 cup Arborio rice
3 cups low-sodium stock (I use homemade that I keep in the freezer), heated
1 large sweet yellow onion, cut in half, then thinly sliced
Olive oil
1 T. butter
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 pound butternut squash cubes, roasted*
1 pinch Saffron threads (soak in a little chicken broth for 2 hours)**
1/2 cup fresh Parmesan, shredded

In a large, heavy Dutch oven, heat about 2 T. olive oil on medium high heat.  Add the onion slices and cook for at least 15 minutes.  You want the onion to cook but not brown (called sweating).  Keep turning the heat down lower so the onions don't brown.  Season with salt.

Turn up the heat to medium high, add the butter, and then add the uncooked rice to the onions; stir to coat the rice with the oil and butter.  Cook for about two minutes.  Add the wine to deglaze the pan and keep stirring until absorbed.  Turn up the heat to high and add the warm stock (I microwave it for 3 minutes) and Saffron; season with salt and pepper, if necessary (I usually don't need to add salt because there is salt in the broth and there is salt in the Parmesan, which will be added later).   Add the butternut squash cubes.  Bring to a boil. 

Put the lid on the pot and bake in a preheat 450 degree oven for 15 minutes.  Remove and quickly stir in the cheese.  Let stand 10-15 minutes before serving.

*To roast the squash:  Put the squash cubes in a large bowl.  Drizzle olive oil on top and mix with a large spoon.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and a little sugar.  Put the cubes on a foil-lined baking pan in a single layer.  Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.

**Saffron needs to be soaked for at least 2 hours.  I just soak it in a little bit of the broth.  I did substitute fresh sage once when I was out of saffron, so that's a good substitute if you don't want to spend the money for saffron.  Note:  Do not use American saffron - it's definitely not the same.  Saffron is expensive but you use very little.  You can tell when the saffron is the real deal by the color of the threads.  They should be red but a lighter orangy-red toward one end.