Dirty Risotto

Recipe at a glance:

2 lbs Italian sausage (spicy or regular)
4 oz bacon (regular, Canadian, or pancetta will do)
1 cup onion, finely chopped (from two small onions)
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
3/4 lb white button mushrooms, chopped (from one standard package)
5 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 cups Arborio rice (or orzo pasta)
1 cup dry white wine
2 tbs parsley
Freshly grated Parmesan, to taste
Salt and pepper, to taste
Cayenne pepper (optional)

Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 40 min
Utensil/bowl use: Moderate – knife, cutting board, mixing bowl, small and large sauce pan, spoon, measuring cup
Difficulty: Easy, nearly impossible to screw up
Serve for: Weekend dinner. This dish is especially great to keep for leftovers.

This dish was the first dish that helped me realize that I was a good cook. And that cooking wasn’t that hard. And especially that home cooking could be incredibly rewarding. Now, this isn’t to say that I hadn’t cooked at home before. I had, and my recipe rotation usually involved chicken breasts and potatoes, homemade chicken nuggets, pasta, more pasta, and lots of sandwiches. Food came only in boxes, jars, or plastic bags from the freezer section. I barely knew my way around a vegetable and I didn’t care to become acquainted with one either. Plus, Chicago has an abundance of Thai food places, something that Texas really misses out on. Our favorite Thai place started recognizing my voice on the phone because I might have called them more often than I called my parents.

Once Chris and I were both in graduate school though, we needed to start spending less money. Thai takeout became a less frequent occurrence. Sandwiches started getting boring. I decided that I was going to find a dish that I could make on the weekend for not alot of money that we could gnaw on all week. That’s when I hit on Giada De Laurentiis’s Dirty Risotto recipe and decided to be ambitious. Dirty Rice, one of my favorites from back home, is fantastic and this looked like an amazing cold-weather take on that Cajun classic.

This dish was everything I wanted to be. It sounded impressively fancy; I had never made a risotto before and Chris had no idea what it was. It had a strong, rich flavor that stuck to your insides on a cold winter night. And, even better, it tasted just as good the next day for lunch. I would find out later that as long as you give it the time it needs, risotto tastes great with just about any number of ingredients, each variation tasting rich and creamy. After making several more risottos, I came to refer to risotto as Adult Mac-and-cheese. Because, honestly, risotto is just that easy and just as worthy as being considered comfort food. But, I keep coming back to this recipe because it’s a solid combination with minimal work.

Grab a handful or package of white button mushrooms. Prechopped ones are fine. I happen to really like mushrooms but Chris is less of a fan. However, if you chop them small enough, they blend with the fluffy rice and end up tasting like sausage. A win for everyone.

A coarse chop is fine.

Make vertical cuts around the crown of a red bell pepper. You want to be able to take out the top and insides while leaving the sides intact.

Discard the stem, seeds, and any white inner membrane; empty it out like a tiny jack-o-lantern. Cut the pepper vertically into 3-4 semi flat pieces.

Cut the pepper into long, thin sticks.

Line up the sticks in a pile and chop into small dice.

The pepper should look like this.

Do the same with the yellow pepper. Feel free to substitute green instead. I just happen to like red and yellow better.

Here is a mini lesson on how to dice an onion. First, peel the onion. I tend to chop off the ends but you certainly don’t have to.

Cut the onion in half along its main axis.

Make longitudinal cuts on the first half.

Rotate the onion and chop perpendicular to the previous cut.

Continue chopping down the length of the onion and repeat with the other half…

until you have two diced onions.

Once all the vegetables are chopped, set them aside and simmer 5 cups of chicken broth on low in a small saucepan.

In a new saucepan, this one large and heavy, chop (your choice of) bacon into small pieces and let cook for 2-3 minutes over medium heat to render some of the fat. Rendering basically means releasing some of the fat from the actual meaty parts.

Remove the casing on the Italian sausage and put the sausage in the large saucepan with the bacon. Discard the casing. I prefer to remove the casing with kitchen shears because it is easy. Use a knife if you want to keep your fingers cleaner.

Cook the sausage and bacon until browned, about 5 minutes.

Add the onions and peppers.

And the mushrooms. Give it all a good stir and let cook until onion and peppers are tender, about 5-10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add 2 cups of Arborio rice. Alternatively, you can also add 2 cups of orzo pasta. Orzo tends to be cheaper than Arborio rice but may require the addition of a tablespoon or two of butter towards the end of cooking in order to mimic the creaminess of Arborio rice.

Stir to coat the rice. Just a couple of turns around the pot.

Add the wine and simmer until the wine is almost evaporated, this should only take a minute or two. I tend to use Pinot Grigio as my wine of choice but that is simply because I can get it cheaper than other types. Plus I happen to prefer to drink Pinot Grigio over other types. Sauvignon Blanc and certain less-sweet Chardonnays can work well too. However, the basic rule in picking what wine to use in your cooking is to pick the wine that you will actually want to drink. So if you like drinking the sweetest Riesling out there, by all means, use it.

Add about 1/2 cup of the simmering broth to the risotto and stir. Stir until the broth is absorbed by the rice, about 3-4 minutes. Risotto doesn’t actually need to be continuously stirred. A good stir every few minutes will be fine.

Add more broth, 1/2 cup at a time and stir with each addition of broth. The rice will become plump and creamy as it absorbs the broth. This process of adding broth, stirring, and absorbing should last about 25-30 minutes. Towards the end of cooking, try a bite of the risotto making sure that the rice is firm but not crunchy. Once the rice is completely cooked, remove from heat. If you want to add spice to the risotto, feel free to add cayenne pepper to taste. I happen to like mine fairly hot and will add about 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne. 

Once off heat, add parsley, dry or fresh, and stir to incorporate.

Once ready to serve, sprinkle risotto with Parmesan cheese.

Dirty Risotto (inspired and heavily adapted from Giada De Laurentiis)

2 lbs Italian sausage, casings removed (spicy or regular)
4 oz bacon, chopped fine (regular, canadian, or pancetta will do)
1 cup onion, finely chopped (from two small onions)
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
3/4 lb white button mushrooms, chopped (from one standard package)
5 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 cups Aborio rice (or orzo pasta)
1 cup dry white wine
2 tbs parsley
Freshly grated Parmesan, to taste
salt and pepper, to taste
cayenne pepper (optional)

Simmer broth in medium sized saucepan on low.

Cook bacon pieces in a large saucepan for 2-3 minutes. If using pancetta instead, cook it in a tablespoon of butter. Add sausage and cook with bacon until brown, about 5 minutes. Add chopped onion, peppers, and mushrooms and cook for 5-10 minutes or until onion is tender, stirring often. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add rice and stir.

Pour wine into saucepan and cook until wine evaporates, about 1 minute. Add about 1/2 cup of the simmering broth to the risotto and stir. Stir until the broth becomes absorbed by the rice, about 3-4 minutes. Keep adding 1/2 cup of the broth in batches and stirring until each addition is absorbed. You only need to stir every few minutes. This process should last up to 25-30 minutes. Towards the end of cooking, taste the risotto to make sure the rice is done and is no longer crunchy or hard. It should be tender and creamy. Once rice is cooked, remove from heat and stir in parsley.

Serve with freshly grated Parmesan.