Spicy Sausage Risotto

Well here goes - nothing ventured nothing gained, as my mother used to say...

You're probably wondering why this blog is called Kathy's, when in fact there is no Kathy posting...well I'm her son, she sadly died some 17 years ago, and I wanted to complete a project that she started but was never able to complete, which is to publish her favourite recipes.

She was writing these out in book form, but I wanted to bring this up to date, and make it available to everybody, let's say as a kind of fitting tribute to my mother who loved food and home cooking, something which I have happily inherited.

Being a blog, and thus open to interpretation, this also gives me the opportunity to touch on my other passions from time to time, and even to actively use some of them here - I'm a keen amateur photographer, and I note my camera has a 'Food' setting...now that may just come in useful! I am not a professional cook - but I am a professional food-eating-type person!

By way of introduction, I'm English, and I live with my family just south of Bologna in Italy - but this isn't going to be another blog about just Italian food as I love food from many continents, be it India, Thailand, Mexico, China and so on, and this won't necessarily just be about food either, although it is my aim to include a recipe, or at least a food theme,  with every post so I'll touch on music, photography, travel, what it's like to live in Italy (and the UK...), and oh, we've got a dog, called Ember (after embers from a fire, she has orange eyes), and she is the sweetest of English Springer Spaniels.

Ember out for a run in her favourite field

She's pretty keen on food too, although it has to be said she's not too choosy...

But she'd certainly like today's recipe which features sausages, and just to break my own rules, this is my own recipe, not my mother's. It is however one of those that all the family enjoy, it's a guaranteed winner!

I'm not going to make these recipes too technical or time consuming, and I very much encourage you experiment and improve on what I publish here; if you get it wrong, feed it to the dog, no-one will remember next week!

So for our Spicy Sausage Risotto you will need:-

8 Spicy Pork Sausages (or flavour of your choice; if you want get plain ones, you can then add any spice mixture you want before cooking (cumin, coriander, chili powder, and so on).
3 medium cups or approximately 300 g of risotto rice (Arborio, Carnaroli etc.)
Dry white wine (chilled) to cover the rice
One garlic clove - pressed or thinly sliced
Salt & Pepper
Quarter of a teaspoon of Fennel seeds - no more, these are quite strong!
One and a half stock cubes - chicken or vegetable
Boiling water - to combine with the stock cubes to make a broth
One medium sized onion - diced medium/small
Olive oil

In Italy they call these 'Salsicce Matte' - 'Mad Sausages'...!!

Serves 4 adults as a main course.

Method:-

In a large wide heavy frying pan drizzle some of the oil, add salt and pepper (not too much salt as many stock cubes can be quite salty), and add the garlic clove and the onion.

Fry on a low to medium heat for 3 or 4 minutes, meanwhile squeeze the sausage meat out of the sausage skins (or even buy it loose...), mix with any spice (should you wish), and either roll into small balls 2 to 3 cm across, or you can kind of 'shred' it into what looks like loose minced meat.

Add the sausage meat to the pan, plus the fennel seeds, and fry over a medium heat until cooked through (it'll change colour and release lots of juices). Mmmmmm....

Once you get to this stage, use a slotted spoon to scoop out all the sausage and onion, keep them in a dish (away from the dog), leaving behind the oil and juices in the pan. This is vital - don't bin either of these!!

Pour the rice in the pan and fry in the oil/juice mixture for a minute on medium heat, covering all the rice; then spread evenly across the pan and pour in enough white wine so that it covers the rice; this will start to be absorbed quite quickly by the rice now, and it should gently simmer just off the boil. You're done with the wine now - well, for cooking anyway.

Never let Risotto boil dry!! But I do like it occasionally when it sticks to the pan a bit and you get little sticky crunchy bits...you can do this at the end...

Pour yourself a glass of the white wine. Oh and did I mention - put some music on, I like cooking to some gentle vocal jazz or maybe Pink Floyd or maybe some blues - Joanne Shaw Taylor or Buddy Guy.  If you're in a rush - put Motorhead on.

...and back to the cooking...

So now, before the wine is all absorbed or boiled off, start adding the broth, gently bit by bit, only ever to cover the rice surface...don't drown it! Stir constantly with a wooden spoon (my wife claims our wooden spoons add flavour as I'm always leaving them in the pan when  cooking...).

You'll need to repeat this over the next 10 minutes or so, as the rice absorbs the liquid.

Now the rice is starting to soften - let's add the sausages and onions back in; I don't leave these in from the start as I like the rice to absorb the wine and broth flavour, and for the sausages to retain some texture.

You've got about another 8 to 10 minutes to go now - stirring stirring stirring, adding broth, broth, broth, stir stir stir....

Test the rice from time to time - there is no hard and fast rule to how long it takes to cook, it depends on temperature, broth quality, rice type...and so on...take a few grains and bite them. It's a bit like cooking Pasta 'al dente', not too soft, not too hard.

As you get towards 18 to 20 minutes cook time, slow down on the broth as the rice softens and keep testing the rice. Don't eat all of this, the family won't thank you.

I like my risottos quite 'sticky' - our boys like them a bit drier, and the classic Italian way is more sloppy (oops - can I use 'sloppy' in connection with Italian cooking??) - it's really up to you what you prefer. One you reach the texture you like - you're done.

You can serve this on warmed plates or bowls, and add Grana/Parmesan cheese should you wish.

You'll find I don't tend to skimp on portion sizes - even though we live here in Italy we still tend to follow the 'single plate' meal format, rather than multiple courses. In any case this might be quite heavy for a 'Secondo' (second course - between the antipasti and the main meat course). If you are particularly ravenous you can serve with some warmed Focaccia Bread with sea salt, or even some classic Garlic Bread.

Drink what you want with it - finish the bottle of white we opened earlier, or if you want, open a not too heavy red. Let's not get precious here.

Enjoy.

Our adopted home town some 75 Km south of Bologna