Risotto w/ "Italian Chicken Sausage".
I adore Risotto. Cheap and flexible. Now, about the Chicken Sausage. Ill admit, im a Sausage snob. One of my hobbies is Meat Curing, so I am hard to impress. It took a lot of hunting for me to find a suitable store bought Chicken Sausage. After much searching, Publix has something I like. The main characteristic is that it is raw. Most that you buy are cured and pre-cooked. I wanted raw. Mostly because you pan cook it, retaining the limited amount of fat to enhance the Risotto. Otherwise, I buy regular Italian Pork Sausage. That works just dandy.
First step, when cooking Risotto. Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Keep this seperate from the pot you build your dish in. You always want boiling water to be able to splash in, so the Risotto doesnt dry out.
Pan cook the sausage, breaking up into bite size pieces. While thats going, dice a small onion, a couple cloves of garlic, and a shallot if you have one. Toss those into the sausage. Throw in a few pinches of salt and pepper while your at it. Once the sausage is cooked, and the veggies are tender, add in the Arborio (Risotto). Toss to coat the grains. Add enough boiling water to cover.
Stir. Keep stirring. If things start drying out. Add more boiling water.
After about 20 minutes, the Risotto should be cooked. Add in a couple tablespoons of butter, and some fresh grated Parm.
Enjoy.
