Sausage and mushroom risotto
Creamy, slow-stirred risotto with browned sausage and golden mushrooms, the dinner to make when you want to feel like a real cook.
- 55 min total
- 45 min hands-on
- A little more hands-on
- Serves 4
- About $3.37 a serving
- 730 calories
- Gluten-free
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 5 cups chicken broth
- 12 oz Italian sausage, casings removed
- 8 oz baby bella mushrooms, sliced
- 1 shallot, minced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1½ cups arborio rice
- ½ cup dry white wine (optional)
- 2 tbsp butter
- ½ cup grated parmesan
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
From your pantry
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ¼ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 730 calories, 24 g protein, 68 g carbs and 40 g fat, and costs about $3.37 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No chicken broth? Vegetable broth or bone broth works.
- No baby bella mushrooms? White mushrooms work.
- No butter? Ghee works.
- No grated parmesan? Parmesan wedge works.
- No fresh parsley? Cilantro works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Warm the broth in a over low heat and keep it there. the mushrooms and the shallot and garlic.
Saucepan. A saucepan is a pot with tall, straight sides and one long handle. It’s for things that need depth, like rice, sauces or a few boiled eggs.
How you’ll know: The food fills it about halfway, leaving room to bubble without spilling over.
Slice. Slicing means cutting food into flat pieces of about the same thickness. Even slices cook evenly, so none are raw while others burn.
How you’ll know: Lay a few side by side: they’re close to the same thickness from one end to the other.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Low heat
Heat the oil in a large, deep over medium-high. Cook the sausage 6 to 7 minutes, breaking it up, until with no pink left, then scoop it into a bowl.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Medium-high heatTimer: 7 min
Food safety: Raw pork sausage is done at 160°F and raw chicken or turkey sausage at 165°F. Precooked sausage just needs heating until hot all the way through.
Add the mushrooms to the fat in the pan and cook 6 to 8 minutes, stirring only now and then, until and their liquid is gone.
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Medium-high heatTimer: 7 min
Turn the heat to medium, add the shallot and garlic, and cook 2 minutes, until soft.
Medium heatTimer: 2 min
Stir in the rice and cook 1 to 2 minutes, until the edges of the grains look .
Translucent. Translucent means onions have cooked until they turn from white to slightly see-through. It shows they’re soft and sweet but haven’t started to brown.
How you’ll know: The onion looks glossy and a little see-through, bends easily, and has barely any color.
Medium heatTimer: 2 min
Pour in the wine, or a ladle of broth, and stir until it’s soaked up.
Medium heat
Add the warm broth about ½ cup at a time, stirring often and waiting until most of it is absorbed before adding more, for 18 to 22 minutes.
Medium heatTimer: 20 min
Dolly’s tip: Taste a grain at 18 minutes. It’s ready when it’s tender with a tiny bite in the center and the rice flows slowly when you tilt the pan.Take the pan off the heat and stir in the sausage, butter, parmesan and pepper until creamy.
Let it sit 2 minutes, add of broth if it has stiffened, and serve right away with parsley.
Splash. A splash is a small, quick pour, about a teaspoon to a tablespoon. It’s there to loosen or brighten a dish, so the exact amount doesn’t matter.
How you’ll know: The dish looks a little looser or tastes a little brighter, not soupy.
Timer: 2 min
Dolly’s tip: Risotto keeps thickening as it sits, so serve it a little looser than you think.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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