Risotto with sausage and radicchio is a delicious risotto recipe that features two quintessentially Italian ingredients: radicchio and salsiccia, fresh sausage. Creamy in texture and very tasty, this is the ultimate radicchio risotto recipe for meat eaters. The combination of radicchio and salsiccia truly delivers a unique flavour.
Adding salsiccia to a recipe is the best shortcut to lots of flavour with minimum effort. What makes Italian sausage so flavourful is its composition. Sausage meat features leaner parts of the pork, like the shoulder, and fatter and flavourful parts like the belly. The meat is ground and mixed with herbs and spices – the most common flavouring is fennel, but there’s usually more herbs involved, like rosemary and thyme.
Sausage risotto takes all the deliciousness from the sausage, plus more. The base is obviously onion and butter, and the other players are crisp white wine and bitter radicchio. Finish it off with more butter and parmesan. Sounds nice? Let’s get cooking!
Vegetarian? No problem! Try my Radicchio Risotto with Walnuts and Red Wine.
The ingredients
For detailed quantities, please refer to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Please notice that Italian sausage is raw. If you can’t find it labeled “salsiccia” or “Italian” aim for a type of sausage that is raw. Ready-to-eat cooked/smoked sausages sold as cold cuts will not yield the same results.
How to make risotto with sausage & radicchio
- In a saucepan bring the stock to a boil, then lower the heat and keep it on low throughout the process in order to be adding it warm.
- Mince the shallot and set aside. Halve the radicchio lengthways, place it with the cut facing down, and slice into 1 cm strips. Push the sausage meat out of its casing and gently crumble it.
- Set a heavy duty skillet (or Dutch oven) on medium heat and melt half of the butter. Add the shallot to the butter and cook on medium heat for a couple of minutes, until soft. Next add the crumbled sausage and cook for 10 minutes, stirring often.
- Add the rice and toast stirring continuously until it becomes slightly translucent, another couple of minutes. Pour in the wine, stir constantly until it evaporates, then stir in the radicchio.
- Add the stock in batches, always adding just enough to cover the rice. Simmer on medium heat stirring from time to time to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the skillet. Only add more stock when the previous batch has been absorbed. Proceed until all of the broth has been added or until the rice is cooked through. It should take up to 20 minutes.
- After the last addition, just before all of the broth has ben absorbed and the texture is still soupy, remove from the heat. Fold in the remaining butter and grated cheese.
Sausage risotto recipe tips
More recipes!
- Walnut and Radicchio Risotto made with red wine, a vegetarian alternative
- Radicchio and Blue Cheese Tart, the most flavourful quiche you’ll try this week!
Sausage Risotto with Radicchio
Ingredients
- 300 g rice for risotto
- 200 g salsiccia Italian sausage
- 250 g radicchio 1 small or half a large one
- 100 ml white wine
- 1 L vegetable stock
- 1 shallot
- 50 g butter
- 50 g parmesan grated
- salt to taste if needed
Instructions
- Bring the stock to a boil, then lower to minimum heat and keep it so throughout the recipe in order to be adding it warm.
- Mince the shallot and set aside. Halve the radicchio lengthways, place it with the cut facing down, and slice into 1 cm strips. Push the sausage meat out of the casing and gently crumble it.
- Set a heavy duty skillet (or Dutch oven) on medium heat and melt half of the butter. Add the shallot to the butter and cook on medium heat for a couple of minutes, until soft. Add the crumbled sausage and cook for 10 minutes, stirring often.
- Add the rice and toast stirring continuously until it becomes slightly translucent, another couple of minutes. Pour in the wine and stir constantly until it evaporates, then stir in the radicchio.
- Add the stock in batches, always adding just enough to cover the rice. Simmer on medium heat stirring from time to time to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the skillet. Only add more stock when the previous batch has been absorbed. Proceed until all of the broth has been added or until the rice is cooked through. It should take up to 20 minutes.
- After the last addition, just before all of the broth has ben absorbed and the texture is still soupy, remove from the heat. Fold in the remaining butter and grated cheese.
