This creamy sausage and pea risotto is filled with flavorful sausage, a pop of sweet peas, and a velvety cream sauce folded in, all topped with toasty breadcrumbs and pecorino romano cheese for the ultimate Italian comfort dish.

If you’re anything like me and watch A LOTTT of cooking shows, do you ever find yourself being scared out of trying a new dish? Well, for me that was risotto.

They talk about how you need to make sure the rice cooks and you want it to be creamy, but you have to be careful that it’s not too soupy and not too dry. I tried a recipe for easy no-stir risotto, put my own twist on the flavors and fell in LOVE.

The flavors of this Creamy Sausage and Pea Risotto are inspired by a breaded and deep fried, cheesy ball of rice heaven called arancini. Done by one of Charleston’s best hidden gems, an Italian restaurant called Mondo’s. Their arancini is stuffed with hot sausage, peas, and mozzarella. This is the easiest, foolproof risotto recipe and I think you guys are going to love it!

The Cream Sauce for Our Creamy Sausage and Pea Risotto

I have a few staple recipes that I use all the time, and this cream sauce is one of them because it is super easy to make. You can add different flavors by using different cheeses or even adding in some sun dried tomatoes.

Start by bringing a pan to medium heat, then add olive oil. Once the oil is hot add minced garlic, cooking until fragrant. Add in cream or milk, I like to use half & half so the sauce is not too thick or too thin. Heat the cream with salt & pepper until boiling and remove from heat. Add in your shredded or grated cheese, and stir until melted and smooth. Voilà! We have a cream sauce!

Lazy Toasty BreadCrumbs

The element of this risotto that really makes it reminiscent of Mondo’s arancini is the crunchy breadcrumb topping and it is crazy easy to make. In a small pan over medium heat add olive oil and minced garlic until fragrant. Add in panko breadcrumbs and toast until golden brown. I also like to add in fresh basil or parsley for color and extra flavor.

Cooking with Wine

Do not let this ingredient stress you out! When I first started cooking with wine, I had no idea what kind of wine to use. A good rule of thumb is to use a wine that you would drink! For example, I typically cook with sauvignon blanc when a recipe calls for white wine because that is typically the wine that I have in the fridge.

Most of the time a recipe calls for a small amount of wine and you will not taste the flavor of the wine anyways. The wine is used to add acidity to the dish and actually enhance the flavors of your other ingredients.

The key to cooking with wine is to make sure that you cook off the alcohol, so you do not get a harsh alcohol flavor. Most of the time you can tell when the alcohol cooks off when the liquid reduces by half in the pan or for our Creamy Sausage and Pea Risotto, when the wine is mostly absorbed by the rice.

Get Creative with it!

I am notorious for deviating from a recipe. I ALWAYS think that I need to add more of a seasoning or substitute an ingredient, but I am here to tell you that that is OK. Leave out the sausage and use veggie broth for a creamy vegetarian risotto. Use the ground meat of your choice with flavorful spices if you don’t have sausage. Cooking should be fun, so get creative and make the dish your own!