Day 23: Sage and Butternut Squash Risotto

It's Saturday again and The Husband bought a squash of unknown type at the Green City Market. His idea for dinner was to make butternut-squash risotto with sage, using a recipe from Alice Waters's seminal cookbook "Chez Panisse Vegetables." So far, he's had mixed success with the recipes from it. The marinated beets were good but the fingerling potato "coins" turned out sort of strange. This summer we grew sage on our back porch and it has become my favorite herb. So versatile, so tasty. Well, I thought the risotto turned out great: very rich, starchy, and a lovely pale orange, with fried sage leaves strewn about on top; the kids, not so much. Texture was the problem, I think. The Husband was baffled. "I thought this would be a hit," he said, shrugging. Isabella gamely took a few bites and even smiled as she tried a half-spoonful with a sage leaf. But then instinct took over and she stopped eating. I must give mad props to The Husband for his sophisticated duochromatic palette of oranges and greens; he shows a lot of promise at these moments.

I didn't say it, they said it: YUCKY.

[PERTINENT UPDATE, 9/20/07: On a recent foray to Glenview, I went to a Japanese market and saw a hacked open squash labelled "kabocha." This is the squash The Husband bought! Mystery solved.]