1/16- HH6 January Challenge: Sausage and Roasted Vegetable Risotto

The challenge for this month was: Prepare a dish that you have never made before but always wanted to try. Tell us why you have taken quite some time to make this dish.

Something that I've always been a bit intimidated by is risotto. You have to stir it constantly, which is difficult to do with 2 small kids who always need my attention one way or another. You have to make sure it's cooked all the way through, which you don't really have to do with normal rice. Top Chef contestants have been sent home for risotto, for Pete's sake! If THEY can't do it, how can I?? This challenge made me man up, though. It was time to conquer my fears and attempt to make something myself that I've eaten before and absolutely loved. (Brian Voltaggio's butternut squash risotto at VOLT was by far the best I've had, and I have no delusions of ever topping that.)

Anyway, for this challenge I not only decided to brave making risotto, I decided to completely make up the dish I was making. I normally hunt up a recipe online and follow that, but not this time! (Ok, I did look up how to make a basic risotto, but the rest was all me.) I had some bell peppers, an onion, and half a butternut squash in the fridge, so I chopped it all up, seasoned it with salt, pepper, and basil, and tossed it in the oven to roast for about 30 minutes. I then cooked up a pack of Sweet Italian Sausage and sliced it after it rested for a bit. I made the risotto with chicken broth, and then tossed the vegetables and sausage in the pot and mixed it all up. I had originally intended to serve the veggies and sausage on top of the risotto, but I decided to mix them together to enhance the flavor of the risotto. I was skeptical of how it would turn out, but it was delicious! Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I was very pleasantly surprised at how it came together. [Well, to be honest, the rice was a tiny bit undercooked, but that was more because I knew everyone was really hungry and that I had to leave soon so I just took it off the stove and served it up, al dente or not.]