Sausage and Asparagus Risotto

Updated: 19/04/2013

When I first posted this recipe I highlighted the age old issue of buying food that you just don’t get round to eating.

I told you how in my house we ALWAYS have a pack of sausages just sitting there waiting to be used. Unfortunately this hasn’t changed since my original post…

I also bet every single one of you can look in the fridge on a weekly basis and find that ONE thing you seem to buy no matter what. No matter how dedicated you are to meal planning, and using up everything so that you don’t create waste, there’s always something lurking in the back of the fridge that just sits there. It’ll be something that you just don’t really know what to do with, but that you love nonetheless.

We also tend to buy a lot of asparagus. And, it is a pretty expensive vegetable to be buying when you have no plans to use it.

I’ve tried a whole range of recipes. From griddled asparagus with almond butter (yet to make it’s way to the blog) to simply steamed alongside salmon. But the more times you have it steamed, or with butter, it starts to get boring.

Luckily for me it seems sausages and asparagus work quite well together!

At university I used to love coming up with sausage dishes mainly alongside pasta as always had some in the cupboard. Sausages are so versatile they can be put with the spiciest of tomato sauces and the creamiest of white sauces .

Here are just a few examples:

· Creamy Sausage Pasta

· Sausage and Pasta Pieces in a tomato sauce

· Sausage Stew

Before I came up with this recipe, at home (meaning my parent’s house), our sausage experiences are a little more conservative...usually toad in the hole, or sausages and mash! Not that I’m complaining! They are two of the best comfort foods.

Now, this recipe makes it’s way on to our dinner table every couple of weeks! And I’ve managed to stop the ‘rents buying sausages if we don’t have any need for them. It’s a miracle!

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Until my original post a couple of months ago, I’d never really thought of pairing sausage and asparagus together before but the more I considered making a creamy sausage dish, the more it just made sense! So with the addition of some onion, mushroom, stock and risotto rice I soon had a new and exciting midweek meal.

To balance out the creaminess of this dish add to give it a bit more personality I find a good helping of pepper really helps, so don’t be afraid to give the pepper mill a good twist or two…or three…or four. You get the picture.

So, if you ever find yourself left with the odd pack of sausages and bunch of asparagus give this a go. If they’re not two ingredients you often find in your fridge then this is something you definitely have to try – head down to the supermarket now and treat yourself!

 

Total based on Asda’s own unless otherwise specified:

Sausages £1.38, onion 15p, asparagus £1, mushrooms 40p, aborio rice 75p, Knorr chicken stock (from cube) 16p, pepper 1p = £3.85

Per person = 96p!

Calculated on or before 29/11/2012

Creamy Stilton Pasta with Garden Greens

Hello my lovely blog readers! I am back! After nearly a month of killing myself over my final law exams I am finally finished! Now, that’s not to say I’m never going to look a case again, to the contrary! I’ve already started hunting down extra reading before I start the LPC in September; law is perhaps the one thing I love more than cooking. Though I am happy that my exams are over.

During exams most people get “the fear” – for those of you who don’t know it’s the uncontrollable feeling of terror at the thought of failing your exams if you don’t revise. For most people this kicks in a week before the exam itself where they realise that “day off” shopping, or that crazy night out probably could have been better spent revising. But me, I get “the guilt” – if I am not revising, sleeping at sensible times, getting up early etc I feel uncontrollable guilt. I’m not sure what’s worse!

Now although everyone has to eat during exams, any time spent developing recipes, taking photos, and blogging regularly would’ve just made me feel super guilty, so most of the posts you saw over the last few weeks were a few cheeky scheduled posts I’d managed to back up over Easter!

Anyways...I did treat myself once or twice during exams, and this recipe was one of them! My local store had stilton on offer and I couldn’t resist. I am a sucker for stinky cheese. The stinkier the better! I love cheese so much one of my favourite presents this Christmas was a Scottish cheese Slate complete with chalk! (Maybe I need to get out more.)

This recipe isn’t great for anyone on a diet, with not one but two types of cheese, but it is great for anyone trying to eat seasonally! Simply grab from the garden (or the green grocers) and seasonal greens and they will cut perfectly through the cheesey sauce.

Here’s the recipe...