Sweet Potato Risotto

Labor Day weekend. Cody is on day two hundred and forty-two of his sentence. The twenty-seventh Saturday visit was Saturday morning. The air has finally turned cool over the weekend — the high Sunday was seventy-six and the low Sunday morning was fifty-two, the first time the night temperature has dropped below sixty in three months.

I want to put on the page what Cody told me at the visit. He has been getting fan mail at the unit. Three letters last week. Two from people who had attended the chapbook reading and tracked down the unit’s mailing address, both of whom had wanted to say that The Sister at the Stove had reached them. The third letter was from one of the editors of the Tulsa Review, the journal that accepted the piece for the winter issue. The editor had wanted to introduce herself to Cody and to ask if he was working on more pieces and to say the piece had moved her in a specific way she went on for a paragraph about.

Cody read parts of two of the letters out loud at the visit. He stopped halfway through the editor’s letter because his voice caught. He said, Kay, I do not know what to do with the letters. I said, save them. Write back if you want. He nodded. He has decided to write back to all three.

And the recipe Sunday was sweet potato risotto, which I made because the air had turned cool enough that a stovetop risotto felt right and because the recipe was the kind of fall-leaning dish I had been wanting to try for a month. The recipe is from Cookie and Kate. Risotto with diced roasted sweet potato folded in at the end, finished with parmesan and fresh sage.

The math: a one-pound bag of arborio rice $2.99 (the most expensive ingredient and the one that lasts longest; I will get four batches out of the bag), one large sweet potato $0.69, an onion $0.20, four cloves of garlic free, two tablespoons of butter, a quart of chicken broth $1.99, a half cup of grated parmesan $0.50 worth, fresh sage from the small bunch I bought $0.99 (the rest will get dried for the next batch), salt and pepper. Total: about $7.36 for a pan that fed Mama and me for three dinners.

The technique is the slow stir. Risotto is, I have decided, the kind of recipe that teaches patience. You stand at the stove for twenty-five minutes adding warm broth to the rice a half cup at a time and stirring until each addition is fully absorbed before adding the next. The stirring is the point. The arborio rice releases its starch slowly into the broth, and the broth thickens into the creamy sauce that makes risotto a different food than regular rice.

Step one: peel and dice the sweet potato into half-inch cubes. Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roast on a sheet pan at 425 for twenty-five minutes until tender. Set aside.

Step two: heat the chicken broth in a small saucepan on the back burner and keep it at a gentle simmer. Cold broth added to risotto stalls the cooking; warm broth keeps the temperature even.

Step three: in a wide skillet over medium heat, sweat the diced onion in a tablespoon of butter for five minutes. Add the minced garlic for thirty seconds. Add the dry arborio rice and stir for one minute, until the grains are toasted and slightly translucent at the edges — this is the "tostatura" step in the original Italian technique and is what gives the rice its nutty foundation.

Step four: add a half cup of warm broth to the rice. Stir continuously until the broth is absorbed, about three minutes. Add another half cup. Stir until absorbed. Repeat for about twenty-five minutes total, until the rice is tender but still has a slight bite (the "al dente" texture).

Step five: stir in the roasted sweet potato cubes, a tablespoon of butter, the parmesan, and a few torn sage leaves. Salt and pepper to taste.

The risotto comes out creamy and orange-flecked and the kind of dish that does not look like much in pictures but that tastes, on a cool September Sunday, like exactly the dinner the season is asking for.

Mama said, when she ate this, baby, this is the kind of dinner the people on the cooking shows make. I said, I am the people on the cooking shows now, Mama. She laughed. The promotion at the Sonic. The chapbook reading. The risotto on the stove. The household, on Labor Day weekend, has the kind of small good momentum I had not believed was possible six months ago.

The recipe is below. The trick is the warm broth on the back burner and the patient stirring. Do not rush a risotto. The twenty-five minutes are the recipe.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 50 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
4 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
1 small yellow onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup dry white wine or additional broth
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon dried sage
Salt and black pepper to taste
Fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish

Instructions

Warm the broth. Pour broth into a small saucepan over low heat. Keep it warm throughout cooking — adding cold broth slows the process and makes the rice gummy.
Roast the sweet potatoes. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add sweet potato cubes, season with salt and pepper, and cook 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until just tender and lightly caramelized at the edges. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
Build the base. In the same pan, heat remaining olive oil and butter over medium heat. Add onion and cook 3 to 4 minutes until softened and translucent. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more, stirring so it doesn’t burn.
Toast the rice. Add arborio rice to the pan and stir to coat in the oil. Cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until the edges of the grains look slightly translucent. This step builds flavor and helps the rice release starch slowly.
Deglaze. Pour in the white wine and stir until fully absorbed, about 2 minutes.
Add broth gradually. Add warm broth one ladleful (about 1/2 cup) at a time, stirring frequently and waiting until each addition is nearly absorbed before adding the next. Continue this process for 20 to 25 minutes until the rice is creamy and cooked through with just a slight bite at the center.
Finish and combine. Reduce heat to low. Fold in the reserved sweet potatoes, Parmesan, dried sage, and a generous pinch of black pepper. Stir gently to combine without breaking up the potato cubes. Taste and adjust salt.
Serve immediately. Spoon into bowls and top with fresh parsley and extra Parmesan if you have it. Risotto tightens up as it sits, so eat it hot straight from the pan.

Nutrition (per serving)

Sweet Potato Risotto — The Slow-Stir Sunday Dinner When the Air Finally Turned Cool