Risotto!

Ok, I promise it’s not as hard to make as you may have been told!  Honestly I think I like making it better than regular rice, because you just keep adding liquid until it is right, instead of plain rice where you add rice and liquid at the beginning, close the lid and hope it turns out right.  As long as you are careful when buying sausage and stock, it's gluten free too!  
A couple things about my risotto.  1.  I used a very dry, not sweet white wine.  I don’t care for the taste of it otherwise.  2.  I think Parmesan is traditional, but I used Gruyere instead – mostly because it is what I had in my fridge at the time, but I really liked the taste of it.  You could absolutely substitute Parmesan if you wanted. 3.  I know there is no salt in my recipe, except with the mushrooms.  I did that because the stock and the cheese added all the needed salt.  You may find you need to add some yourself though.

Risotto with Mushrooms and Sausage

Ingredients 

2 cups Arborio rice

4 cups chicken or vegetable stock

2 cups dry white wine

1-2 Tb butter

1 lb spicy Italian sausage (I used lean turkey sausage)

16 oz mushrooms sliced

4 cups fresh baby spinach leaves

¾ cup gruyere cheese grated (any favorite hard cheese would work, Parmesan,Tuscano, Romano etc)

salt to taste

optional: red pepper flakes, black pepper

Heat stock and wine together in a saucepan and bring to a bare simmer. Melt 1/2 Tb butter in another saucepan over medium heat.  Add rice to butter and toast* for 2 minutes. Add a couple ladle-fulls of broth mixture into rice until it covers the rice, and stir occasionally.  Keep the rice at a bare simmer.  Every 5 minutes or so when the liquid no longer covers the rice, add a couple more ladle-fulls of broth mixture and keep stirring occasionally.  After about 20 minutes start testing the rice.  It will be done when it is tender all the way through, about 30 minutes. 

While the rice is cooking, cook the sausages through. I like to take them out of casings, and crumble meat, but you can leave the whole and slice after cooking if desired.  I like lean italian sausauge, but I cannot always find it in the spicy variety, so I add red pepper flakes and black pepper to taste (1/4-3/4 tsp depending on taste and desired heat). Remove sausage from pan and leave about 1 Tb of liquid from sausages.  If they did not give off any fat, add 1 tablespoons of butter to the pan. Add mushrooms and a pinch or salt to pan on med-high heat, they should sear and cook through. Slice the sausage and add back to mushrooms when they are cooked.  

When rice is cooked stir in cheese to combine. Stir in 1 additional Tb butter if desired for silkiness.  Add mushrooms and sausage to pan with rice.  Stir until the rice soaks up the liquid from the mushrooms and sausage. Fold in spinach until just wilted and serve with grated gruyere on top.

                                                                                        

*To toast rice, just cook over medium heat with butter stirring frequently.  It will become translucent; just make sure that it does not start to burn.

Makes 4 generous 2 cup servings.  748 calories per serving