Sausage Risotto with Olives and Sun-dried Tomatoes

  By meglet | May 4, 2013 - 8:38 pm | Recipes
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You can find varying risotto recipes all over the web, running the gamut from vegetarian to seasonal to side dish to meat-based, and with just about every level of complexity to go with them. Personally, I prefer a quick and simple risotto, and after a little tweaking this mix of Chicken Apple sausage, kalamata olives, and sun-dried tomatoes has become my favorite. It’s a fairly quick and easy one-pot recipe, requiring anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour depending on just how fast you prep all the ingredients.  Follow along with the pictures for a photographic tutorial, or just skip to the end for the 1-2-3 steps!

 

Ingredients:

  • 6-7 oz sausage, uncooked and removed from casings (I prefer an Italian-seasoned Chicken Apple sausage)
  • 1.5 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • Touch of pepper
  • 1/2 onion, finely chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 cup Italian Arborio rice
  • 2 sections sun-dried tomato (about 1 whole tomato) finely chopped, reserve about 1 tsp liquid for the risotto
  • 8 kalamata olives, finely chopped
  • 20 oz chicken broth (approximately – anywhere from 16-22 oz depending on your preference)
  • 1 tsp. dried basil leaves, if desired
  • 1/2 cup (heaping) grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 Tbsp. butter

First up, gather all your ingredients together. This is not a recipe where you can stop and run to the store halfway through when you discover you’re out of something!

Making Sausage Risotto with Olives and Sun-dried Tomatoes

 

Next, prep all those ingredients you just gathered. Measure the dry ingredients, chop the olives & tomatoes, remove the sausage from their casings, and start your broth heating in a saucepan.

Making Sausage Risotto with Olives and Sun-dried Tomatoes

In heavy saucepan or dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, and cook for about 5 minutes until tender. Add sausage, stir until browned, then cook thoroughly

Making Sausage Risotto with Olives and Sun-dried Tomatoes

 

Once the sausage is cooked through, add the risotto and tomatoes to the pan, and stir before adding liquid

Making Sausage Risotto with Olives and Sun-dried Tomatoes

 

As the edges of the rice begin to turn clear, start adding the warm broth, about 1 cup at a time. The first cup of broth will do a nice job de-glazing the sausage bits from the bottom of the pan, so stir well. 

Making Sausage Risotto with Olives and Sun-dried Tomatoes

 

While the risotto cooks, let the broth simmer away a bit before adding the next cup. Repeat until the last cup of broth. 

Making Sausage Risotto with Olives and Sun-dried Tomatoes

 

Add the chopped olives with the last cup of broth and stir well. 

Making Sausage Risotto with Olives and Sun-dried Tomatoes

 

Once the last cup of broth has cooked away, add the  Parmesan, basil, and butter, mix them in well, then cover the risotto and let it stand for 5-10 minutes. 

Making Sausage Risotto with Olives and Sun-dried Tomatoes

 

Once the risotto is finished, serve up a bowl and enjoy it on the patio while watching the ferries load on a beautiful spring day! (Ferries and beautiful weather may not apply.)

Dinner on the Patio

 

Quick steps:

  1. In a small saucepan, heat chicken broth until just warm
  2. In heavy saucepan or dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat.
  3. Add onion and garlic, and cook for 5 minutes until tender.
  4. Add sausage, stir until browned and cooked through
  5. Add rice and tomatoes, and stir to coat.
  6. Add 1 cup warm chicken broth, and cook until liquid is reduced, stirring frequently.
  7. Continue to add chicken broth to keep rice covered, stirring frequently.
  8. Add olives with the last cup of broth
  9. Add broth, stir, and cook for a total of about 25 minutes until rice is tender.
  10. Add basil, cheese, and butter just before serving and stir to melt.
  11. Cover pot and let stand 5 minutes off the heat.

Ferry Views

  By meglet | March 27, 2013 - 10:42 pm | Musings
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The patio on my new apartment overlooks the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the ferry terminal, among other things. So I’m sure I’ll be spending a lot of time just sitting and watching the ferries.

Evening From the Patio

And watching. . .

Catching an Evening Ferry

And watching. . . . . . .

Ferry Traffic

A Week in Photos

  By meglet | January 18, 2013 - 10:12 pm | Musings, Photography
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(Apparently I hit “Draft” instead of “Publish” so this is now a week old. Still fun, though!)

Sunday morning, I was staying at a friend’s place in the country and woke to a beautiful sunrise:

Red Sun Rising

Followed by a hawk hunting for breakfast in their backyard:

Taking Off

I came home to a gray, foggy city:

In the Fog

Which turned out to be beautifully sunny (but still bitterly cold) on the rare occasions the fog cleared:

Wednesday Morning

And after work one night, I found myself downtown at the Experience Music Project:

3/52 - EMP Reflections.

Just in time to see the Space Needle light up the foggy night sky:

Purple Haze

Then enjoyed a quiet walk home through the dark city streets:

Night-time Coffee

Night on the Seattle Waterfront

  By meglet | January 4, 2013 - 10:34 pm | Musings, Photography
1 Comment

It was a dark and not-so-stormy night, so I took the camera and tripod down to the Seattle Waterfront for the evening.

From the Bell St Pier, the lights of the city glow against the dark sky:

Seattle Waterfront at Night

In the Bell St Marina, all of the boats are tucked in for the night:

Dark Marina

Looking across the water towards West Seattle, Puget Sound glows with lights reflected from the docks:

Night Reflections

The new “Great Wheel” on the pier sits ready and waiting for passengers:

The Great Wheel

The glow of the neon blue wheel stands out among the gold reflections of the docks:

1/52 - Night on the Waterfront

Home Made Almond Roca

  By meglet | December 16, 2012 - 8:20 pm | Photography, Recipes
2 Comments

With the office “goodies week” coming up, and thus the responsibility to bring wonderfully yummy treats to feed to my coworkers, I pulled out the Almond Roca recipe I got from Mom last year, made a few tweaks, and whipped up a batch.

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound butter (salted is fine)
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 4-6oz chopped or slivered almonds (toasted if you like)
  • 8-10 ounces chocolate chips (not quite one bag – more if you love chocolate)

Making Almond Roca

Directions: (you can skip to the end for the short, boring, photo-free version)

Line a cookie sheet (be sure it has edges, to trap the candy later) with aluminum foil. Spray the foil with Pam or coat it with butter. Sprinkle about half of the chopped almonds onto the foil

Making Almond Roca

Note that I’ve also collected the chocolate chips and remaining almonds into bowls for easy dispensing later. Chefs call it “mise en place” I call it “planning ahead so you’re not trying to rip open a bag of chocolate chips while your 300F candy cools too quickly.”

Clip a candy thermometer (you DO have a candy thermometer, right?) to the side of a Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed sauce pan, add the 1lb of butter, and have your 1 cup each of brown and white sugar standing by.

Making Almond Roca

IMPORTANT NOTE – You’ll notice the wooden spoon pictured here. Let me provide you with a little visual reminder of WHY you should use a wooden spoon instead of a plastic spoon:

2/365 - Can't Handle the Heat

Moving on – Start melting the butter over medium heat. Once the butter melts enough to coat the bottom of the pan, add the sugar:

Making Almond Roca

Continue stirring over medium heat as the butter and sugar melt; the butter may initially float to the top:

Making Almond Roca

But as the candy heats it will turn into a smooth, caramelly blend:

Making Almond Roca

Then into a thick, sticky, bubbly substance as it starts to approach 300F:

Making Almond Roca

When the candy reaches 300F (or “Hard crack” on some candy thermometers) remove it from heat and pour into the pre-lined cookie sheet, spreading it with a spoon or spatula until it’s an even sheet:

Making Almond Roca

Quickly add the chocolate chips, let them sit a few seconds so the heat from the candy softens them up, then start spreading them over the candy. You’ll notice they will melt on their own, no need for any additional heat sources:

351/365 - Making Almond Roca

Once the chocolate has been spread, add the remaining chopped almonds to the top, sprinkling them evenly then pressing them lightly into the chocolate.
Making Almond Roca

Let the candy cool to room temperature, then break into pieces and pack between layers of parchment paper in an airtight container.

Directions – the short and boring version:

  1. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Spray with Pam. Sprinkle with half of the slivered almonds.
  2. In a heavy Dutch Oven pan melt and bring to a boil the sugars and butter over medium heat. Bring to a 300 degree boil stirring to prevent scorching. (hard crack)
  3. Pour onto the cookie sheet and spread it as thin as possible with a fork. Put chocolate chips on top and spread evenly when they melt. Put remaining almonds on top, pressing them down into the melted chocolate.
  4. Let cool to room temperature. When cool you can lift the whole thing off the pan and break into small pieces.

From Boring to Cozy

  By meglet | December 1, 2012 - 9:16 pm | Musings
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The dining/living/everything room in my apartment has looked pretty much the same for years. It’s fairly neat, it’s mostly functional, and the furniture layout is completely boring thanks to being a single long, narrow room with windows eating up a lot of wall space. Fortunately, in a recent bout of caffeine-induced insomnia, I had a 2am epiphany and figured out how to “fix” the living room so that it’s much more interesting.

Previously, it was just one long line of furniture lined up along the walls:

Neat, Functional, and Boring

But thanks to that 2am inspiration, I spent today re-arranging the living room furniture and moving the bookcases out of the guest room. Now I have a wonderfully warm and cozy space for reading, watching movies, or just relaxing.

336/365 - Cozy Living Room

(Note – the giant Expedit pantry and the dining table are behind the couch, just off the edge of the photo. Nothing changed there so there wasn’t much point in including it.)

Baked Lemon-Herb Chicken

  By meglet | October 3, 2012 - 5:38 pm | Recipes
1 Comment

On a recent trip, my sister and I went to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory and I fell in love with their Lemon-Herb Roasted Chicken, which is half a roasted chicken served with mashed potatoes and carrots, and absolutely swimming in butter sauce (not to mention, drowning in calories.) Tonight I put together a baked lemon, herb, and garlic chicken recipe that is almost as good (maybe better, depending on my mood) not to mention a little bit lighter (if you can call this quantity of butter “light.”)

 

Ingredients:

  • 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 4 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 1/2 Lemon
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • Herbs – oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, sage, etc to taste
  • Salt
  • pepper

 

Directions:

  • Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
  • In a small bowl, mix garlic, herbs, and melted butter, then brush about half over chicken
  • Place chicken in a lightly greased (or oiled) baking dish
  • Bake at 325 degrees F for 30 minutes. Turn over and baste with remaining sauce
  • Bake at 325 F for another 30 minutes

 

Serve with rice or mashed potatoes. Tip – if serving with rice, pour some leftover sauce over the rice.

277/365 - Baked Lemon-Herb Chicken

 

And yes, I do actually have a Le Creuset baking dish that is perfectly sized for just one piece of chicken. It’s very convenient when making meals for 1-2 people or just a few leftovers.