Risotto!

I heart Risotto. It's probably my favorite food in the world. I make it ALOT (several times a month) and I have to say, I'm pretty good at it, since its sort of a high maintenance meal. Lots of stirring and adding liquid. But it's totally worth it. You can put anything into risotto - my favorite thing is roasted veggies (butternut squash, brussel sprouts, asparagus, etc.)

Anyways, I get a random subscription to All You Magazine - anyone ever heard of it? It's basically a mag about life, recipes, decorating, saving money, etc. Sometimes they have some pretty good recipes, but one in the latest issue caught my eye -- Baked Risotto with Sausage and Mushrooms. Basically it takes the "work" out of the constant stirring of risotto and lets you add in the chicken broth and pop your dutch oven into the oven to bake for about an hour. Hmm I was definitely intrigued, so I tried it tonight for dinner.

It was surprisingly good! It stayed really creamy and the Arborio rice cooked well so it was nice and starchy. I would recommend it, especially if you are feeling lazy and enjoy a one pot meal with super easy clean up!

Here's the recipe (adapted from All You Magazine, my changes are in red):

Baked Sausage and Mushroom Risotto

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Yield: Serves 4 (we got a TON more than 4 servings out of this - we'll both be able to take it for lunch the rest of the week)

Ingredients

• 3/4 pound Italian turkey sausage, casings removed (I used chicken sausage, like the Hillshire Farms precooked stuff cause I had it on hand - still turned out tasty!)
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 8 ounces sliced cremini or button mushrooms
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 1/2 cups arborio rice
• 4 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth, warmed (I only used about 3.5 cups of broth and it was plenty!)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (yeah, I didn't have any fresh parsley, so we went without. We did top it with some extra Parmesan Cheese)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 325ºF. In a Dutch oven or other large, ovenproof pot with a lid, cook sausage over medium heat, stirring to break it up, until crumbly and browned, 6 to 8 minutes. Spoon sausage into a bowl lined with paper towels and pour fat out of pot.

2. Return pot to heat and add oil. Add onion and mushrooms, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring, until onion is soft and mushroom juices have evaporated, 8 to 10 minutes. Pour in wine and cook until reduced by half, stirring to release any browned bits on bottom of pan, about 2 minutes. Stir in rice and cook for 3 minutes. Pour in 3 cups of broth and stir to combine.

3. Bake for 20 minutes. Stir in Parmesan, reserved sausage meat and remaining 1 1/2 cups broth. (I only added about another 1/2 - 3/4 of a cup of broth at this point cause it was still really liquidy and it was fine) Cover, return to oven and bake until rice is tender but not mushy, 30 to 35 minutes more. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Definitely try it if you love risotto or if you've never had it before and you want to start off easy! I didn't take a picture, but here's the picture from the magazine's website - it really did look exactly like this!

(Source)