Brown Rice Risotto with Sausage & Tomato Confit
If you follow along on Instagram you’ve seen me posting a TON of photos of us harvesting lot’s of cherry tomatoes to make my favorite slow roasted cherry tomato recipe–aka, tomato confit. Poaching the tomatoes in olive oil with garlic and slow roasting them for hours results in the most luxurious tomatoes I’ve ever tasted. I originally posted a recipe for tomato confit in 2017 and I still make that same recipe today. I’ve been making a ton of it to freeze for the winter (you just divide it between mason jars, cool in the fridge for 24 hours before placing in the freezer). This past week it was cool enough to warrant a night spent stirring a big old pot of risotto and I couldn’t resist stirring in some tomato confit. It was absolutely divine. We fried up some Italian sausages to add to the risotto but next time I make this I’m going to add chorizo instead. I think that would make it even better!! However, the Italian sausages were really tasty as well. I think you’ll be happy with whatever sausage you go with!
Anyhow, I hope you all love this risotto as much as we do. Happy fall cooking everyone!
Brown Rice Risotto with Sausage & Tomato Confit
Prep Time: 20 minutes Cook Time: 1 hour Serves: 4
Risotto- 1 cup brown rice (soaked overnight in 3 cups of water and 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar- See note)
- 3 links of Italian sausage, cut into thin rounds
- butter or oil as needed
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- fat pinch of salt and pepper
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 3 1/2 cups hot chicken stock (I like to keep mine warm in a saucepan on the stove while I'm preparing everything else)
- 1 recipe Tomato Confit (about 2 cups worth)
- 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese for serving
- salt and pepper for serving
Preparation
- Drain and rinse the rice well. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the rice, reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes (rice will not be done). Drain and set aside.
- In a large dutch oven over medium-high heat, brown the sausage on all sides until it's no longer pink and cooked through. Remove from the pan. Add a touch of butter or oil to the pan and saute the onion until it begins to soften up, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, salt, pepper and thyme and cook for 1 minute longer. Add the rice to the pot and cook for 1 minute. Pour in the wine and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until most of the liquid evaporates. Stir in 1/2 cup of hot chicken stock and stir for about 3 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated. Continue adding more broth, 1/2 cup at a time, until each portion is absorbed before adding the next.
- Stir in a tomato confit and sausages and heat through.
- Add the freshly grated parmesan cheese and additional salt and pepper to taste
Notes
*Soaking the rice in water and vinegar overnight makes it easier to digest. Use this recipe as a guide and adjust measurements and ingredients as necessary.
Yum! It ‘s on the menu for tomorrow!
This looks amazing. Can’t wait to try! Thanks for sharing your recipes!
I made this last night and it was very good. I used spicy Italian sausage…crumbled, not sliced. I liked the use of brown rice in the “risotto” prep. I’m not sure if I was supposed to add all of the oil that was with the tomatoes. I just added the tomatoes using a slotted spoon and reserved the oil for later. I imagine it would have been super oily if I added it all?
I just made this for dinner tonight. It was delicious! I used a little of the oil from the tomatoes for flavor and drained the rest of the oil. I used hot Italian sausage which added a little kick! This is definitely a keeper sooo good!!
I’m so glad you loved this recipe as much as we do! Woohooo!!