Hi everyone! I know recipes are discouraged here, but i'm formatting this more as a "This is how i got from A to B" thing, since thinking about a bunch of different points and incorporating all the knowledge we've learned here with intuition is what got me there.
- I love Sausage and arugula pairing (like any sane person), and we just got some pretty nice looking arugula (full, not baby, which i'd rather have in a field green mix) from our cropshare. I was thinking how I wanted to do a pasta dish with it...
- We're trying to cut back on pasta (both for health, and also for me, i'm sick of always relying on a pasta dish for all of my solutions...hard growing up italian in the northeast). Also, I want to start incorporating more rice and whole grains for health and because I like them, but never go to them.
What I wanted was a sorta creamy all-inclusive one pot meal. Here's what I came up with, feel free to try it or make any suggestions if it's close to what you've tried in the past.
Farro (any other sorta hearty grain would work, barley, spelt, something like that, i wouldn't personally use rice for this)
Italian Sausage
Garlic and Onion
Chicken stock (i did it once with beef and it was fine, but chix is preferable)
Arugula (not baby, big leaves, trimmed of most stem)
Parm or Pecorino cheese (other hard grating cheese probably fine)
Mascarpone Cream (this item is up for dispute, we'll get there later)
Fresh Herbs (my garden is sweet right now, I used sage, parsley, basil, thyme and oregano. No particular ratio)
Lemon Juice or Zest if you just want the acid/boost or just the bright boost, respectively
- First, I sauteed the arugula BRIEFLY in some olive oil. Enough to wilt it and remove it from the pan.
- Brown the sausage on both sides, be careful to keep your brown bits brown. Remove and tent for a bit.
- In the sausage fat, supplement with some butter or oil perhaps if needed (i did because i only used two sausage), toast the Farro. I like the toasting and I do think it enhances the final flavor. If you disagree, skip this step
- Onions and garlic, and most of the water in them will deglaze the little bit of brown you'll have. There may even be room for another acid here, just subtract that from the amount of liquid you need for the grain. Get the onions and garlic soft, you don't have to really kill them.
- Go in with your liquid, bring to boil and then lower heat and simmer (this is standard grains stuff).
- If using dried herbs, go in now. if using fresh, wait until you're almost finished with cooking the farro. Toss them in. At this point, if most of the liquid is gone and your farro is cooked, go back in with the chunked up sausage and the arugula. This is why i removed it from the pan, i didn't want to kill the arugula and flavor in boiling stock.
- At this point, start adding in your grating cheese and just getting it incorporated. Also, start mixing in the mascarpone cream to your desired consistency. Lemon juice here if you want (zest earlier if using)
So here's a pic of the end result. I guess it's sort of a farro risotto, or something like that. I'm debating the mascarpone. It's expensive, I just thought about it on a whim and wanted to do something different, but i don't feel like for the amount I'm using I'm getting any effect for the money. I'm feeling like some cream cheese or of course butter or something at the end would also make it creamy. Any suggestions or discussion welcome, what would you have done? Like I said, this is just me saying WWJD (it works without any abbreviation change!)
