Risotto with Sweet & Hot Sausage

Hardware

Ingredients

4 oz   hot Italian sausage
4 oz   sweet Italian sausage
1 Tblsp   unsalted butter
1/2 tsp   hot red pepper flakes
2 Tblsp   chopped fresh parsley

Procedure

  1. Remove the casings from the sausage.

  2. In a saute pan, cook the sausage until the meat is no longer pink.

  3. Remove from the heat and set aside.

  4. Prepare the "plain" risotto, modifying the procedure as follows: After the rice has absorbed the butter and oil (step #4), add the sausage to the mixture. Finish the recipe as usual.

  5. After the rice is soft, stir the butter, red pepper, and parsley into the risotto and serve immediately.

Notes

The original recipe called for the sausage to be cooked in the rice, but I find this is difficult, and it takes longer, and it's easy to burn the rice. Sauteing in a pan works just as well.

If using the dried peppers I got from Keith, one large and one medium or even two large -- without seeds! -- is about right. (Once chopped, this comes out to somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 teaspoon.) Don't be fooled at first, the "kick" grows on you. (I don't expect this note to make sense to anyone else, and no, I don't know what kind of peppers they are.)

As with many other risottos, this one would also go well with peas added to the mixture. You should be able to toss them into the risotto for the last two minutes or so of cooking.

Rating

Difficulty: Easy (this condimenti, that is; the risotto is moderate).

Precision: 2.

Time: About 15 minutes (plus the time for the basic risotto, of course).

Source

Adapted from Risotto, by Judith Barrett and Norma Wasserman.

[Return to the risotto introduction] [Abbreviations]
 
[Up to the recipe index] [Back to AdamM's home page]