my sage plant is going crazy at the moment. it's looking very beautiful - the leaves are variegated with green, white and purple patches - and i'd like to find some recipes to do it justice.

this butternut squash risotto with goats cheese was a good starting point but i need more ideas - can anyone recommend anything?

eta: this risotto was finished with browned butter which had sage leaves added to it, until they crisped up. very delicious and a trick worth remembering (to blog)!

jerusalem artichokes are in season and i’m loving them. skye gyngell’s recipe for roasted jerusalem artichokes with goat’s cheese and agresto is a good place to start if you fancy trying them. and, despite the dreadful photo, so is this risotto.

i followed a dennis cotter recipe which had an unusual approach to making the risotto – instead of using vegetable stock i cooked half the jerusalem artichokes with some onion and garlic before adding vegetable stock and simmering until the ‘chokes were soft. this was then blitzed together and sieved to create a thin artichoke broth which is used when you make the risotto, in place of stock and creates a wonderful intensity of flavour (i'm interested to try this method with other root vegetables, perhaps parsnips). the rest of the ‘chokes are roasted and added at the end. in the picture above, which i took the first time i made this, i kept the roasted artichokes quite large which didn’t work well- the second time the cubes were c1cm which was much better. it’s up to you if you peel them – my first batch were very knobbly so i didn’t bother.

when i was looking up recipes i found several which suggest serving the risotto with scallops – i didn’t do this the first time i made this recipe but did the second, when i was cooking this dish for friends. the flavours work wonderfully together and i thoroughly recommend it. ‘tis easy enough too -  i melted some butter and when it had started to brown i added the scallops and fried them for a minute or two on each side.