Creamy, Rich, & Absolutely Delightful!
Risotto is a dish of love! It's weird to say, but if you give a little love and heart to your risotto you are bound to taste the difference. A little love can go a long way! Let's be honest, Risotto is made out to be this time-consuming, labor-intensive dish, but in reality, risotto is actually very simple and easy to prepare. Again, give it a little heart and all will be good! Even with various add-ins, your risotto dish should be done in 30 minutes.
Let's Get Cooking!
What's Needed:
Arborio rice
Ground sweet Italian pork sausage
White wine
Shallot
Veggie stock
Mushrooms
Peas
Spinach
Butter
Parmesan cheese
Parsley
Olive oil
How to Make The Basic Risotto:
Start out by putting your sock in a medium saucepan. Heat the stock until it comes to a simmer. Keep the stock on a low simmer for the entire cooking process. Using cold stock is like putting the reset button on the cooking process. Cold stock cools the cooking down and can cause uneven cooking of the rice. When it comes to the stock, make sure to use a seasoned or well-flavored stock, this is what helps flavor the risotto.
In another larger pot, we prefer to use a dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat. Saute onions of choice until softened. For this particular recipe, we did not add garlic. If you are adding garlic, add it in after the onions have sauteed.
Once onions are softened add in the arborio rice. Toast the rice for a few minutes, stirring regularly.
Next, add white wine of choice. Bring the wine to a gentle boil over medium-high heat and continue to stir. NOTE: no need to over stir. Once the majority of wine has been absorbed you will then move on to the next step. We prefer to use a drier white wine, but it really is a preference. A general rule of thumb when it comes to cooking with wine: if it's good enough to drink, it's good enough to cook with. The wine will also add great depth and flavor to the dish, so choose a wine flavor you enjoy!
Time to add the stock! Using the heated stock, ladle a few ladlefuls of stock into the pot at a time. While stirring regularly wait until most of the liquid has been absorbed, then continue to repeat this cooking process. When cooking you can stay at the medium-high heat or move to medium heat, you just wanted to keep the temperature consistent, steady, and at a simmer. You can cook risotto over a lower heat too, it works just fine, just takes longer. Adjust as needed. Risotto uses about a 1:4 ratio, about 1 cup rice to 4 cups liquid (more or less). The entire cooking process should take about 20 to 30 minutes.
Once the rice is al dente, turn off the burner. The residual heat will continue to cook the rice.
Add in the butter, parmesan, and mix well.
Lastly, add any fresh herbs. Always add fresh herbs last, this will allow for better flavor!
Sweet Italian Sausage Risotto
The only difference is we browned the sausage first in the olive oil then went right to step 1.
Since the mushrooms and peas cook fairly quickly we added them in towards the end of the entire cooking process.
Finally, add in the spinach just before finishing with steps 7 and 8!
And, just like that, you have a customized risotto dish, Sweet Italian Sausage Risotto with loads of veggies!
Check out all of our other risotto dishes!
