Last week I caught up on the phone with my sister over in Italy who (during an amazing conversation about Italian food) said that she had seen a really delicious looking sausage and courgette risotto that she didn’t eat, but immediately felt compelled to try herself at home. I did the same and the result was really good.
I love making risotto, there is something so therapeutic about gently stirring as the rice slowly cooks and releases a wonderful creaminess. This has now become my new favourite risotto recipe, replacing a classic porcini and wild mushroom risotto that my husband claims is his favourite meal.
It was also the perfect opportunity to test out my new ‘Spon’ – not a spelling error – kindly sent to me by Neil Robertson of The Spon Co. The Spon is Neil’s clever invention and he went on to win the World Porridge Making Championship using it!
One day, as Neil was stirring his cake mix, he realised he had to keep stopping to scrape the cake mix from the ‘bowl’ of the spoon and so he decided to invent a spoon with two convex sides – basically there is no ‘dip’, just two backs with extra weight to increase beating power.
When making a cake mix, creaming or beating by hand, you end up with no lumps and a more aerated mix. As demonstrated by Neil, it also makes great porridge! I found that the Spon was also absolutely perfect for stirring the risotto and will always use it for that from now on. Since you get two Spons in a packet, I found that the baby Spon was great for scrambled eggs or stirring a roux.
You can buy them online for the very reasonable price of £5.00 (plus postage) for a pair of carved beech spons. Mine also came with a recipe for The Spon Sponge, which I will try next.
I hope you enjoy making the risotto (recipe below). I used some pancetta and parmesan pork sausages, though really any high-quality sausages would work well. Take care not to overmix. I always have a separate pan of gently boiling stock next to my risotto pan, so that the stock is almost boiling as you add each ladleful of stock to the rice.
Let me know what your favourite risotto flavours are!
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Sausage & Courgette Risotto
Recipe from my sister in Italy
Ingredients 2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 stick celery, finely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
6 high-quality pork sausages (taken out of casing)
350g Arborio risotto rice
1 glass white wine
1.5 litres of chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
3 courgettes, cubed
A knob of butter
50 g grated parmesan cheese
Method
1. Prepare all of the vegetables and remove the sausages from their casing.
2. Heat the olive oil in a heavy-based pan on a medium heat, add the onion, celery and carrot and cook for about 5 minutes until soft.
3. Add the sausage to the pan and break it up with a spoon so that it crumbles and starts to resemble mince. Again, cook for about 5 mintes until it takes on some colour.
3. Add the risotto rice to the pan and mix well so that all the rice is coated with the olive oil. Make sure the heat is not too high, so that the rice doesn’t stick to the pan.
4. Add the wine, stir well and allow it to bubble until it has evaporated.
5. One ladleful at a time, add the stock, stir a little and simmer until the rice absorbs most of the stock before adding in the next ladleful. (I keep a sperate pan of gently boiling stock next to the risotto pan so that the stock always goes in hot). You will start to see that you rice goes quite creamy. In total, you should keep adding your stock, simmering and stirring for around 10 minutes.
6. Towards the end of the cooking time, add the courgettes – these really don’t need any time at all and you are aiming for them to stay quite firm and crunchy. The rice also needs to stay quite firm – it should have a bite to it (I overcooked mine as the kids prefer it to be a bit sloppy!)
7. At the very end, stir in the knob of butter and add the parmesan cheese. I usualluy serve it with a pile of cheese on top too!
In total, the risotto takes around 15 minutes of cooking time – unless you have bought ‘risotto pronto’ or quick cook risotto which will take much less.
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Loved this recipe! Thanks sis!
Thank you also to Neil for kindly sending me the Spons.