Before the sausages I bought get too dry, let’s try to prepare some winter style risotto with them. The rice varieties I usually use for risotto are arborio or vialone nano since they have enough starch to create a creamy consistence. If you do not have experience it is better to use arborio since it tolerates better extended cooking, although vialone nano gives better results but your cooking timing should be very precise, otherwise you get a kind of porridge consistence.
Ingredients (4 persons)
4 espresso cups of arborio or vialone nano rice
2 dcl of dry white wine
1 l of vegetable bouillon (stock)
extravirgin olive oil
rosemary
2 garlic cloves
some butter
freshly grated hard sheep cheese (pecorino) or parmiggiano or grana padano
In a saucepan mix 1 dcl of wine and 1 dcl of water, add sausages cut in 1 cm long pieces, add some rosemary to aromatize the liquid. Cook on low heat for 5 min. Heat a sauté pan over low heat, put olive oil. Crush with a knife peeled garlic cloves, add to the pan, remove after 1 min. Add rice to the pan, stir for 3-4 min, until they get slightly transparent. Add 1 dcl of wine to the pan and please please do not choose some cheap cooking wine, but the same you will serve with your risotto. Add stock to risotto just to cover the rice. Add salt, stir continuously, add now already halfcooked sausages.
When the liquid has evaporated, add more stock, repeat until the rice is almost cooked, so still slightly hard. Remove from the heat, add a small spoon of butter, stir and cover for 3 min. Serve on warmed plates. Grate some cheese on top of it and finally add some black pepper.
