Spinach and Sausage Risotto

We love risotto and I'm always looking for new recipes. I found this one on the Sprouts website and adjusted it slightly.

Spinach and Sausage Risotto
Adapted from Sprouts

1 can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes in juice
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Sprouts Sweet Chicken Sausage, casings removed
1 Sprouts Hot Italian Sausage, casings removed
1 small onion, finely chopped
Coarse sea salt and ground pepper
1 cup Arborio rice
½ cup dry white wine
1 bunch flat-leaf spinach, washed well, tough stems removed, chopped
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese


In a small saucepan, combine tomatoes (with their juice) and 3 cups water. Bring just to a simmer; keep warm over low heat.
In a medium saucepan, heat oil over medium. Add sausage and onion; season with salt and pepper. Cook, breaking up sausage with a spoon, until sausage is opaque and onion has softened, 3 to 5 minutes.
Add rice; cook, stirring until well coated, 1 to 2 minutes. Add wine; cook, stirring until absorbed, about 1 minute.
Add about 2 ladles of hot tomato mixture to rice; simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until absorbed. Continue adding tomato mixture, 1 ladle-full at a time, and stir the rice until it’s nearly all absorbed. Continue this process until rice is creamy and tender, about 25 minutes total.
Remove pan from heat. Stir in spinach and Parmesan; season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

So how did I adapt this? I changed out the two sausage links for some sweet Italian sausage I had already browned (about 1/2 pound). I also used probably about 2 cups of baby spinach I had chopped up (we like that better than regular spinach). I had 14 ounce cans of Italian diced tomatoes and we probably had about 1 1/2 cups of that mixture left.

The risotto ended up being sweeter than normal ones because of the tomatoes. Dan really liked it and we are keeping the recipe.

Sorry for the quality of the photo. It was dark outside and the risotto was still in the pan.

Bacon Risotto

This weekend I cooked not once but twice. Believe me this is a big deal. I wanted to cook stuff that I knew Whitney wouldn't like and since she'll be home in two weeks, I figured I better get cracking. She doesn't like rice and Dan and I love risotto, so I thought that would be good to make. We have a recipe that we like but I wanted to experiment. I found a recipe for bacon risotto on allrecipes and thought hey, we like bacon, let's try it.

I have to pat myself on the back and say I made a perfect risotto. Creamy and cooked to perfection. The basic recipe could be adapted to use any kind of vegetables or meat you wanted. The bacon was nice but actually wasn't necessary. The important part is the creamy texture you get in the risotto.

Bacon Risotto (recipe from allrecipes.com)

• 1/2 pound bacon, diced
• 5 cups chicken stock (I used 3 cans + 1/3 cup white wine)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• salt and black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Cook and stir the diced bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until browned, about 10 minutes. Drain the bacon and reserve.
2. Bring the chicken stock to a boil in a saucepan over high heat; reduce heat to low to keep the chicken stock hot.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons butter in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic; cook and stir until the onion begins to turn golden brown at the edges, about 2 minutes. Pour in the rice and stir until the rice is coated in butter and has started to toast, 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce heat to medium; stir in one-third of the hot chicken stock and continue stirring until the rice has absorbed the liquid and turned creamy. Repeat this process twice more, stirring constantly. Stirring in the broth should take 15 to 20 minutes in all. When finished, the rice should be tender, yet slightly firm.
4. Remove the risotto from the heat and stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, the Parmesan cheese, and the reserved bacon. Season to taste with salt and pepper before serving.

I made a couple of changes. I added white wine after coating the rice before adding any broth. It also took me about 25 minutes to get to the right consistency. I added salt and white pepper before it finished so that would cook in. Use this as a good base for making risotto and you can't go wrong.

Mushroom and Chicken Risotto

One of the things with Whitney being gone is that we are able to cook things that we know she doesn't like and that we do. This recipe combines a couple of them...mushrooms and rice. I had bought a clearanced book at Borders with chicken recipes from Food and Wine magazine.

Courtesy of Food and Wine Magazine

Mushroom and Chicken Risotto

2 tablespoons butter
1/2 pound mushrooms, cut into thin slices
2/3 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 2), cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
5 1/2 cups canned low-sodium chicken broth or homemade stock, more if needed
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1.In a large pot, heat the butter over moderate heat. Add the mushrooms. Cook, stirring frequently, until the mushrooms are browned, about 5 minutes. Add the chicken, 1/4 teaspoon of the salt, and the pepper. Cook until the chicken is just done, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove the mixture from the pan. In a medium saucepan, bring the broth to a simmer.

Chicken and Mushrooms

2.In the large pot, heat the oil over moderately low heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the rice and stir until it begins to turn opaque, about 2 minutes.

Risotto

3.Add the wine and the remaining 3/4 teaspoon salt to the rice. Cook, stirring frequently, until all of the wine has been absorbed. Add about 1/2 cup of the simmering broth and cook, stirring frequently, until it has been absorbed. The rice and broth should bubble gently; adjust the heat as needed. Continue cooking the rice, adding broth 1/2 cup at a time and allowing the rice to absorb it before adding the next 1/2 cup. Cook the rice in this way until tender, 25 to 30 minutes in all. The broth that hasn't been absorbed should be thickened by the starch from the rice. You may not need to use all the liquid, or you may need more broth or some water.

4.Stir in the chicken and mushrooms, the Parmesan, and the parsley and heat through. Serve the risotto with additional Parmesan.



Our finished product



Things I would change with this recipe is to cook the chicken separately and add more seasoning. By cooking in the same pot as the mushrooms it couldn't get brown and it lacked flavor. We used four cans of chicken broth because it always seems like our risotto is too thick. And I didn't have an onion so we used dried minced onion. We also don't like parsley so we didn't add any.

 

We have a similar recipe that uses italian sausage instead of chicken. I liked that the chunked chicken made it feel more like a meal than the tiny bits of sausage.