Risotto With Sausage And Cranberry Borlotti Beans Recipes

RISOTTO ALLA PAVESE

Steps:

• Pour vegetable broth into a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Add fresh cranberry beans and return to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until beans are soft but not mushy, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove beans with a slotted spoon, leaving the vegetable broth over the heat source on medium-low.
• Heat olive oil and butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, whole rosemary sprig, bay leaf, and sage. Sauté until onion is soft and translucent, about 7 minutes. Add rice and stir to toast the rice, 2 to 3 minutes. Once rice is toasted, add drained beans and stir until well coated.
• Add white wine and stir until wine is fully absorbed. Add 1/2 cup broth to the rice and stir until the broth is absorbed. Continue adding 1/2 cup of broth at a time, stirring continuously, until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is al dente. Add tomato sauce and stir until creamy and thick. This whole process will take about 18 minutes.
• Remove risotto from the heat source and let stand for 2 minutes. Remove rosemary twig, bay leaf, and sage and serve.

RISOTTO WITH SAUSAGE AND CRANBERRY (BORLOTTI) BEANS

Steps:

• If using fresh beans, shell them, put them in a pot with enough cold, unsalted water to cover by about two inches, bring the water to a gentle simmer, cover the pot, and cook at a slow, steady pace until tender, about 45 minutes to one hour. Let them steep in their liquid until ready to use. If using dried beans, soak them overnight or for at least six hours, drain, then boil them in a fresh change of water untl tender. Let them steep in their liquid until ready to use.
• Put the oil and chopped onion in a medium skillet, turn on the heat to medium, and cook the onions, stirring frequently until translucent but not coloured. Add the crumbled sausage and cook it, turning it over with a wooden spoon, until it becomes coloured a rich brown all over.
• Retrieve the cooked beans from their pot, using a colander spoon or another slotted spoon, and put them in the skillet. Add one or two tablespoons of water from the bean pot, and mash about half the beans, pressing them against the bottom of the skillet with the wooden spoon.
• Cook for about a minute, turning the contents of the pot over with the spoon from time to time. Pour the broth into a saucepan, bringing it to the boil and keeping it at a slow, sputtering simmer.
• Place the heavy-bottomed saucepan where you'll be making the risotto on the burner nearest to the broth, empty the contents of the skillet into it, and turn the heat under the risotto pot to medium high. Stir, and when the beans and sausages are sizzling hot, add the rice. Stir quickly and thoroughly to coat the rice well.
• Add one cup of simmering broth, and cook the rice, stirring it and periodically adding liquid. Finish cooking the rice, stirring always and adding broth when needed, until tender but firm to the bite, about 25 minutes.
• Take the pot off the heat and do the mantecare step, swirling in the butter and Parmesan, turning the risotto over four or five times. Add the chopped parsley, salt and ground pepper to taste, stir once or twice more; transfer to a warm platter and serve at once.
• What is mantecare? Mantecare is the final step of making risotto. The word is borrowed from the Spanish for butter, mantequilla. In Italian it means to work butter or cream into what you are cooking to give it a soft consistency. In making risotto you do this when the risotto is cooked but is still steaming in the pot. Add a tablespoon or so of butter and some freshly grated cheese, and swirl them in to combine. It is the final and best touch, giving the risotto its great consistency.