Happy New Year Everyone! It's time to get back to some hearty meals...and they are probably a little more nutritious than my favorite 12 Cookies of Christmas. As I've mentioned before, we are a risotto family. Every other week we make a batch of recipe inspired or "everything but the kitchen sink" risotto.
This week was "everything but the kitchen sink". I had a pound of sweet sausage and an onion. I wasn't sure what I could do with it. I kept trying to think of what would go great with it but peppers kept popping into my head (sausages, peppers and onions) and I didn't have any. So, I grabbed the risotto and figured I'd make it up as I went along.
Follow me as I make sausage risotto with tomatoes and basil.
I started with:
1 yellow onion chopped
1 pound of sweet sausage with the casings removed
8 cups of chicken broth
Put chicken broth in a sauce pan and heat to a simmer.
Heat a large dutch oven over medium heat. Once it is hot, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil then add the onions. Cook for 5 minutes or until the onions are translucent, add the sausage in pieces to the onions. As it cooks, further break the pieces into bite-size form. Cook until the sausage is no longer pink.
Add 2-1/2 cups of arborio rice. Saute for two minutes until the rice is slightly translucent.
Stir in 1 cup of white wine. Once the wine has been absorbed start adding the chicken broth two large ladles at a time. As the broth is absorbed, add more ladles of broth to the rice, keeping them moist and avoid sticking to the bottom of the pan. After four ladles have been used, add
1 14 ounce can of diced tomatoes with it's juice to the chicken broth.
Add 1/4 cup of fresh basil, chopped to the rice mixture.
Continue adding ladles of chicken broth until the rice is soft with a slight bite. You will probably use about 7-8 cups of broth. Add 4 tablespoons of cream cheese and 1/2 cup of shredded parmesan cheese. Remove from heat and place in a serving dish to stop the cooking process.
This serves 6-8 people (comfortably).
It was delicious! And everyone went back for seconds. It had a hearty sausage taste with pieces of tomato. Creamy, Mmm, Mmm good! Take advantage of an easy meal which you can change up at any time. Maybe chicken with broccoli or shrimp with peas and lemon rind. Throw in everything but your kitchen sink!
