gone italian again – risotto with spicy sausage

“First we eat, then we do everything else.”
M.F.K. Fisher

This is a perfect Quick Fix dish … it takes about 15 min to prepare and after that, you will time for whatever you fancy.

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It is only a couple of years since I started to do my risotto in the oven … instead of standing stirring for ages. When I stayed at a beautiful luxury country hotel for nearly a year in Scotland  (another story) with Guide Michelini star restaurant, “Knockinaam Lodge“, Portpatrick … I noticed that their executive chef, Tony, always did his risotto inside the AGA cooker and not on top. But I never tried myself until a couple of years ago (don’t ask me why????!!) and it works perfectly. I always do my risotto in the oven now, thanks to Tony.

Tony has held their star for 22 years!!!!

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It’s also a couple of years since I enjoyed this dish for the first and only time at an Italian restaurant in Berlin – the original name for the dish is “Risotto con Salsiccia”. I never planned to do it myself – but I had a leftover spicy bratwurst in the fridge. And what an easy dish to make.

When looking for the recipe over internet most recipes come up with saffron in the recipe, but I didn’t get that in Berlin … ????!!!! But it was made with fresh sausage that they had was removed from the casting.  Slasiccia is made from coarsely ground pork with loads of garlic and peppercorn. 

Make sure that when you cook the risotto in the oven that you have a very tight cover! I use foil that I wrap around the dish.

Also the white wine I was using where frozen, I always freeze dinner leftover wine – both red and white for cooking, because I don’t cook that often with wine and I never drink wine on my own. So to always have some in the freezer when need. Always one of the reasons to why I use a little sugar when I cook with wine.  

Because I was using a cooked sausage I sliced it into coins. I’m not that found of saffron more than in fish soups …. I think it depends on that too many times has the chefs been a bit too generous with saffron and it has overpowered the dishes I have paid for. 

Risotto with spicy sausage, serves 4

300 gr (10,5oz) arborio rice
4 cooked or fresh spicy sausages (300 gr/10,5oz )
700 ml (3 cups) vegetable stock
3 shallots (I used 1 medium regular onion), finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbsp butter + 1 tbsp for pan-frying the sausage
100 ml (0,43 oz)  ( white wine – I always add 1 tsp of sugar when I cook with wine)
salt and freshly ground black pepper for seasoning
1 bunch of fresh parsley, chopped – I used Findus frozen.
100 ml (0,43 oz) grated parmesan cheese

1. Warm the stock
2. Chop the garlic and onion so finely as you can. Fry the onions and the rice with butter in a frying pan for a couple of minutes until the onion gone transparent and the rice is well coated and very glossy. Add the wine (without or with sugar), let cook for a minute or two.
3. Slice the sausage (if cooked) or fry the sausage meat with generous amount of coarsely chopped parsley until slightly golden.
4. I let the sausage drain on absorbing paper for a couple of minutes – to get some of the grease removed.
5. Just put the rice mixture and the sausage into an oven proofed dish – cover really tight.
6. Cook at 200C/400F for about 30 min.

Abracadabra!!! And you have a perfectly creamy risotto, while you watch your favourite afternoon soap documentary or added a new post to your blog.

And the end result for trying a new dish: Really good … and compare to the dish I enjoyed in Berlin it made it up to a 9. And my version only cost me 15% of what I paid for in Berlin and so glad I didn’t add any saffron.

As cloud for this dish and post, I have chosen the first-ever piece of classical I listen to and fell in love with straight away. I lived with my mum at the time and I must have been 17 years something … had just left the apartment building (on my way to work), where we lived in Gothenburg, was just outside in the car-park when my mum open the window … called my name and turned up the radio. And I just stopped!!! I recall the feeling and great experience at that moment … every time I listen to it.

“Va, Pensiero” (“Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves”) from Giuseppe Verdi’s “Nabucco.” A four acts opera composed in 1841 and first performed at La Scala in Milan in March 1842.