Italian Sausage, Red Pepper, and Mushroom Risotto

Backstory 

Since this blog is relatively new, I created a facebook fan page to gain more exposure. A post I made to the Discussions tab was one titled Dish Ideas. The basic premise of it was to put the laws of supply and demand to work and take requests. I am open to cooking different things because the primary reason I decided to start this blog was to learn how to cook a variety of different things, not having any formal training. In addition, why am I doing this if no one is reading it? 

So far, the only reply was from my better half requesting a risotto and lamb shanks. During my weekly trips to the store, I’ve noticed that lamb shanks aren’t very common. Risotto intrigued me, however. I had never heard of it, much less cooked one, until I had become a fan of Hell’s Kitchen with Chef Gordon Ramsay. He has a risotto on his menu for the show as an appetizer, I believe. 

Recipe 

When I went looking for a recipe, I noted the overwhelming majority were vegetarian recipes, but I wanted one with meat in it which is the reason I chose the following one: 

http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2009/09/27/italian-sausage-red-pepper-and-mushroom-risotto/ 

Notes 

1. Ingredient substitutions. The only ingredient substitution I made was margarine for butter. I only had to buy about half of the items, as I already had half of them at home. One of the ingredients is dry white wine. I used a Pinot Grigio that my friend brought with him when I had him over for the Chicken Parmesan. 

Ingredients

2. Cooking equipment. In step two of the cooking method, it notes to use a large heavy saucepan. I’m a little unsure how the ingredients would cook evenly in a saucepan, so I used a skillet instead. In addition, I only had one saucepan available which was being occupied by the simmering chicken broth. 

3. Cooking method. In step four, it notes to keep adding the chicken broth one-half cup at a time allowing for the broth to absorb between each addition, at approximately two-minute intervals. However, I noticed about halfway through the rice became saturated because the it was no longer consuming the chicken broth. I’m assuming this was intentional, as the recipe indicates the mixture should be creamy when all the broth is added. 

Mixture Simmering As Chicken Broth Is Added

Final Thoughts 

My wife was a little disappointed, only because she was expecting the risotto to be green similar to Chef Ramsey’s. If I were to cook it again, I might play around with the ingredients a bit, as the bell pepper added a good tangy taste to the recipe, but I had difficulty tasting the mushrooms and the sausage. In addition, when I looked up Pinot Grigio online (after preparing the dish), the Wine characteristics section specifies that it is generally a sweet wine, not a dry one. I wonder how that would change the taste of the dish. I also found it interesting that the recipe I prepared here follows an almost identical cooking method to the one in Wikipedia referenced above. 

Enjoy!