Tomato and Sausage Risotto

oh. my. goodness.

This may quite possibly be the best Italian dish I have ever made.  It is soooooo good.  Jeremy and I completely devoured it.  Now, Risotto is very tricky.  The name means "little rice".

To correctly cook risotto, it has to be CONSTANTLY(constantly as in...if I have to take a break to go to the bathroom, I have to get Jeremy to come and stir it!) stirred while gradually (and very slowly) adding liquid to release the starch of the rice in order to get a very creamy mixture that gives risotto its unique texture as opposed to traditional rice dishes.  Stir...

Still stirring...

and some more stirring...

Most risotto recipes claim that you only have to stir for about 20 minutes.  LIARS!  To get perfect risotto, you must stir for like, an hour, at least.  Tedious, but worth it.  Just pop in your ipod and go to town. Normally, risotto is made with simple flavors such as chicken stock, white wine and parmesan cheese, with the addition of some veggies or meat like chicken or fish. Well, I have only had and made risotto once in my life before, and that was what I made, so I wanted to do something new.  I saw a recipe for Tomato and Sausage Risotto from one of my personal favorite food blogs, The Smitten Kitchen, and decided to go for this.  Oh man. let me tell ya.  This recipe (I made a few adaptions) is the Bee's knees.  The original recipe called for parmesan cheese.  I used Pecorino Romano.  Delicious!

  Base ingredients included spicy italian sausage and onion.

So since dinner took me about 2 hours to so to make...I had some wine to keep me company.  (Chianti is our favorite)

Along side this delicious rice dish, Jeremy made some delightful garlic bread.  A big loaf of italian bread covered with garlic, butter, olive oil, oregano and mozzarella and broiled.

Topped with more grated Pecorino Romano cheese and some fresh basil.  Voila!  

I usually am quite the slow eater, and Jeremy is the fast one, significantly faster than me.  Well, we finished at the same time.  It was sooo good, and very filling.  But in about 2 hours, there will be more garlic bread made, and second servings to be dished out.  Here's the recipe!

Tomato and Sausage Risotto
adapted from Smitten Kitchen.


(serves 4-ish)

1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes in juice (with added dried spices basil, oregano, garlic)
1 Tb olive oil
1/2-3/4 lb italian spicy sausage
1 sm. onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
Salt and Pepper
1 cup Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine, or chicken broth for a substitution
1/2 cup Pecorino Romano cheese, grated (plus a little more to go on top of the dish)
2 Tb butter
Basil, freshly chopped

Combine tomatoes with 3 cups of water in a small sauce pan and heat on low to keep warm.  In another sauce pan, heat oil over medium heat.  Add the sausage, onion and garlic, season with salt and pepper, and cook until sausage is browned, and onions are translucent (about 5 minutes).  Add rice to sausage mixture and cook about a minute or so.  Add wine/broth and stir until absorbed (5 minutes maybe?)  Add about 2 cups of the tomato mixture to the rice.  Stir for a long time, constantly, until absorbed.  Continue to add the rest of the tomato liquid, 1 cup at a time, until absorbed.  (this process takes around an hour).  Once all liquid is absorbed and rice is creamy with an "al dente" bite, remove from heat and add cheese and butter and stir until mixed well.  Top with basil and grated cheese.

Jeremy's Garlic Bread

Italian bread, thickly sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 stick butter, melted
olive oil
oregano
mozzarella cheese

Rub garlic pieces and butter on each slice of bread.  Drizzle with olive oil. top with oregano and mozzarella cheese.  Put under the broiler for a few minutes, until just browned.