Random Recipe Friday: Orzo with Sausage and Vegetables

This stuff is so damned good I can't stand it. I promise you. It's a WONDERFUL hearty autumnal dish. And the smell of it when it's cooking will make you weak. My friend Beth, who's a fabulous chef, made this for a pot luck a few years ago, and I kind of obsessed over it until she finally wrote out a recipe. Her recipe was a little bit loose and free-formed, so I have come up with specific measurements. Feel free to loosen it up and make it your own...

Orzo with Sausage and Vegetables

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 lb. sausages (I've been using Aidelle's chicken-apple sausages- delish), cut on the diagonal into 1 inch pieces

1 tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce

1 red pepper, chopped

1 yellow pepper, chopped

1/2 of a red onion, chopped

1 bunch green onions, chopped

3 or 4 stalks of celery, chopped

3 or 4 carrots, diced

1 tbsp. fresh rosemary (I'm uber lucky to have it growing outside year-round. That's LA!)

1/2 cup raisins

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 lb. orzo

2 cans chicken broth

Salt and pepper to taste

Saute sausages in olive oil until crispy and caramelized on the outside. Add Worcestershire sauce and cook a minute more. Remove sausages from pan and set aside.

Add veggies to pan with the sausage drippings and saute until slightly browned and kind of "sweated out". I like it better if the vegies are a little al dente, but if you're like my mother-in-law, you can cook them until they dissolve into mush. Your choice.

Pour the chicken broth into a stock pot and add half again as much water. Bring to boil and add orzo. Cook according to package instructions. NOTE: Remove the boiling stock/water from the heat for a moment when you add the orzo or it will BOIL OVER. I don't know why. Once the orzo is added you can put it back on the heat. You could just cook the orzo in plain water, but the chicken broth gives it richness.

Drain the orzo and dump it in with the sausages/vegies (or as we say in Texas "tump" it in).

Serve!

I also sometimes do an Italiany version of this substituting Italian Sausages, taking out the raisins, rosemary and cinnamon and adding a can of diced tomatoes (drained), fresh basil and some pine nuts to the vegie mixture. Really good too.

Comments

[Michele Renee]

L.A., schmel-A, we have rosemary year round on this coast too! :) This recipe sounds fantastic. You're right--very autumnal. I'm starving right now.

[Jan]

Holy schnikees, as my daughter would say - I didn't post a recipe this week (rare for me), but who cares? This looks *marvelous*! I don't care much for Italian (yes, I am strange) but the original version? I'm all OVER that.

I LOL'd at your "tump" reference; I, too, am a "texpatriate." I miss home. That being said, one nice thing about living "up north" (Ohio, in my case) is my garden. And my herbs - well, besides the basil - are still in good shape, so the fresh rosemary? Oh, yeah.

[Amy]

Yum! Reminds me I was going to post my recipe from Thursday - also orzo, cos we are maybe in some parallel-universe phase?? And super quick. I am cutting & pasting this to try next week!

(search Lentil Andouille for my fave Aidelle's sausage recipe...)