Italian Sausage & Oven Roasted Eggplant Farro Risotto

Being a restaurant owner (and self-proclaimed foodie!) led me to add ‘write a cookbook’ to my bucket list, and this recipe could easily be one to make the cut. As the cold weather hits my Northern California home, I’m always looking for hearty comfort food, especially if it reminds me of my travels to Italy. I could easily spend an entire rainy afternoon scrolling through the pages of La Cucina Italiana to get inspiration from their mouth-watering recipes. Then I get into the kitchen to whip up something with all the ingredients that I’m craving. Today it is sausage and eggplant.

One of the last memories I have is of my Italian nonna standing in the kitchen making sausage stuffed pizza dough (and it was delicious!), so anything with sausage has a special place in my heart.

I have been a lover of eggplant ever since tasting my moms layered eggplant parmigiana—my mouth waters just…