Two Boudins and Cotechino Risotto
I know, it’s been killing you. I posted about Publican Quality Meats last week and you’re asking yourself, “What the heck did the Hedonist do with all those sausages?” Oh wait, that didn’t sound good.
Boudin Blanc and Boudin Noir
Those are the French words for white sausage and black sausage, respectively. Go figure. Boudin blanc is a simple sausage made from pork with some milk to give it a rich, delicate flavor. Boudin noir uses pig blood in it to make it dark, rich and earthy.
Can you tell which is which?
I wanted to capture the full flavor of the meats unobscured by other ingredients. Since they were already cooked, all I needed to do was sautée them lightly and served them with some grainy mustard. They were delicious but almost too rich.
Cotechino
This is an Italian-style sausage that’s usually cooked slowly for several hours and served with lentils. I lacked both the patience and the lentils, so I went with a Jamie Oliver suggestion to roast it with some onions and mix it in some risotto.
For the sausage, roast with two unpeeled onions at 375 degrees for an hour or so. When cool, peel the onions and chop roughly. Peel the sausage and crumble.
For the risotto, I went with my usual method.
– 4 cups of chicken stock
– 5 Tablespoons of butter, divided
– Olive oil
– 2 chopped shallots (My recipe usually calls for two onions, but I already had the roasted ones)
– 1 clove garlic, chopped
– 1 pound of Arborio rice
– 2 cups dry white wine
– 8 oz sliced mushrooms
– Freshly grated Parmesan
– 3-4 sprigs of fresh thyme
– Black pepper
1 – Heat the stock to a really low simmer and keep close by.
2 – In a large pot, melt 3 T of butter with some olive oil
3 – Sautee the shallots and garlic over medium-low until soft
4 – Stir in the rice and sautee for 2 minutes
5 – Add the wine and stir until the wine’s been absorbed.
6 – Stir in ½ a cup of the stock and stir until that’s absorbed.
7 – Repeat with additional ½ cups until the rice is al dente – about 20 minutes or so. You should be ok with this amount of broth but if you run out you can add boiling water.
8 – Stir in the butter, parmesan, sausage, onion, and thyme.
This was fantastic, I would make it again in a heartbeat.
Pairings
Normally, I like to have Pinot Gris or Champagne with risotto to cut through the richness. In this case, I had a couple friends over and I had a couple of bottles that I was dying to drink. They were both French reds, but honestly the wines and the risotto were so good it didn’t matter.
2002 Domaine Heresztyn Gevrey Chambertin (Pinot Noir from Burgundy) – Lots of earth and strong fruits on the nose. Smooth and long-lasting finish. Classic Burgundy.
2000 Chateau de la Coste Margaux – We actually had a bottle of it the week before and it was corked. I had a couple more of them and I figured I’d take a flyer on it again as they wouldn’t get any better. This one was a little past its prime, but still holding up nicely (and NOT corked). Not much on the nose due to age – some cedar and plum. Still very lush and well-balanced. Nice finish, so I can only imagine how good it would’ve been three or four years ago. Darn.
2000 Chateau Beard Saint-Emilion Grand Cru – This was slightly faded. It didn’t have a whole lot of flavor left – some cherry, oak. Nicely balanced, but probably should’ve been drunk at least five years ago.
2005 Switchback Ridge Merlot, Napa Valley – My buddy brought this and I was very thankful, especially after the dying Chateau Beard. As expected, rich fruit, lush with good oak. Not an over-the-top fruit bomb. Beautifully smooth with a long-lasting finish.
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8 comments on “Two Boudins and Cotechino Risotto”
Leave a Reply to The Byronic Man Cancel reply
wine century
Doppel Member, Baby!
First, black sausage can really only be enjoyed through conscious denial. Sausage always requires a little “Just don’t think about it,” but dark sausage? Doubly so.
Second, I seem to have a block when it comes to learning wine. Wine tastings, reading about it… and all I can do is “I dunno… something dry and red.”
Eh, that’s all u really need to know. I have someone else a couple wine tasting buzzwords to use to sound like a pro. White=say “crisp”. Red= “haunting”.
I also learned from my tasting experience that “Cat urine” is not the insult it really should be.
HAHA!!! true…. but horse piss is still malicious
I once made black sausage (in German appropriately named “Blutwurst”, blood sausage) with friends in Seoul. It was good, but messy. A bucket full of pig’s blood, mixed with bacon and all sorts of stuff with a handheld blender gets messy…we had to clean up the kitchen ourselves because our host feared the cleaning lady would call the police…it was the only time I ate it, I just cannot bring myself to eating cooked blood.
The risotto looks spectacular…
That is funny! I’ve had blood sausage many times b4. I like the flavor but can’t eat too much because its just too rich. Between u and my inlaws ( from Helmstadt) I’m losing my impression that Germans will eat anything meat related.
Haha, well, Germans can surprise after all! 🙂
Boudin–bad memories. When I was leading bike trips in France it was my job to know what everything was on the menu. Got in late and could not make sure of everything, but when in doubt it usually was a ‘white fish’ of some sort. Everyone ordered it, except me. Turned out to be not just boudin but boudin noir. Let’s just say I was not Mr. Popular.