Mushroom Risotto | The Foodie Pilgrim

By John, 19 July, 2020

Region

Description

Mushroom Risotto This is a full-flavored fall dish, bursting with mushroomy goodness.

It's not as rich and decadent as Barolo and Porcini Risotto, so you don't have to save it for a special occasion. It's great with big beef dishes and hearty dry red wine from the Piedmont!

The best flavor here comes from a mix of mushrooms, both fresh and dried, with their soaking liquor. There's a real boom in mushroom cultivation now, so it's much easier to find good fresh mushrooms of interesting varieties than it was even a few years ago.

Yield

8 Servings

Preparation time

45 minutes

Ingredients

2 T Olive oil

2 T Butter

1 clv Garlic (crushed)

6 c stock (hot, beef or vegetable)

1 c Dried Mushrooms (see notes)

1 Onion (chopped)

12 oz Fresh Mushrooms (sliced)

1 pn Thyme

2 c arborio rice

1⁄2 c Dry White Wine (or red)

1 T Fresh Parsley (chopped)

Instructions

Heat the stock to a simmer.
Take 2 cups of the stock and soak the dried mushrooms for 15 minutes or more. You might need to hold the dried mushrooms down with a heavy spoon.
Saute the onion in the oil over moderate heat until golden and the garlic starts to brown.
Add the rice and stir until coated with the oil.
Add the wine and let it boil down.
In a separate pan, saute the fresh mushrooms in the butter with the thyme until ready, and set aside.
Strain the soaked mushrooms, adding the liquid back into the hot stock. Chop the mushrooms to about the same size that you chopped the onion.
When the wine has boiled down, add the hot stock, ladle by ladle slowly. You'll probably need two ladlefuls to start, and then as it cooks into the rice, add another ladleful each time it gets below the level of the rice. Keep stirring or it may stick to the bottom of the pan.
When you add the last ladleful (you might not need all in the stockpot, let the rice tell you if it needs more), sprinkle the herbs over the risotto, and any salt or pepper that you think it needs.
Serve hot (this will hold its heat for a long time).

Notes

There are many more varieties of fresh and dried mushrooms readily available than there were just a few years ago. You can make this recipe three times with different mushrooms and get different flavors each time. I often buy bulk dried porcini or mixed dried mushrooms in Portland at Micucci Market or in Worcester at the Polish markets on Millbury Street or south of Andrews Square, but you can get smaller quantities at many markets now. They seem expensive by weight, but an ounce is quite a lot of flavor!