October 7th, 2009

Growing up my dad would cook a handful of italian dishes when we would have company (he's expanded his recipe repertoire the past couple of decades). Many weekends I would wake up to the smell of meat sauce and it was a good thing. Several times a year I would wake up to the smell of sausage, but I knew it wasn't for breakfast, it was the luganega for risotto milanese (which is just a fancy term for aborio rice cooked in chicken stock with sausage, mushrooms and chicken). Luganega is an italian breakfast sausage that is not cut into little links and it's delicious. Risotto is definitely one of my comfort foods and when the weather starts to get a chill in it, it's my favorite time to make it. Since having kids it's not as fun, because risotto requires much babysitting and stirring right before you serve it. In our house, 5:30-6:00 is a tough time to neglect the kids for rice, but it's worth it!