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Delicious creamy mushroom risotto is a fantastic meal, which is also very easy to cook!
As you know, there are so many different types of risotto. Risotto with artichoke, seafood, courgette, tomatoes, sausages, squash, asparagus, you name it! :) This recipe is with mushrooms, but knowing the basic steps of the recipe you can experiment with fillings.
Good to know:
- There are different types of risotto rice. The most popular are Arborio, Carnaroli and Vialone Nano. Use the one you can find, or the one you like.
- DO NOT wash the risotto rice.
INGREDIENTS (3-4 PORTIONS):
- Rice (I use Carnaroli) – 1 glass (~250 g)
- Mushrooms (I use brown champignons) – 350 g
- Onion (I use Shallot) – 1 pcs
- Butter – 60 g
- Garlic – 1 clove
- Dry White Wine – 150 ml. Any good quality dry white wine would work perfectly. However, I also love cooking risotto with more sweeten white wine, like Muscat de Rivesaltes. It is a sweet wine with a delicate lemony-honey notes, really elevates all flavours and brings them together. Let me know in the comments below, if you try it.
- Stock (I use vegetable stock) – around 1 litres, the amount may vary
- Parmesan cheese – 60 g
- Olive oil – 2 tbsp
- Paprika powder – 1/3 tsp
- Salt and pepper to taste
COOKING METHOD:
1. Finely grate the Parmesan cheese and put it aside.
2. Cut half of the butter (30 g) into small cubes and keep it in the fridge until needed.
3. Clean the mushrooms (I use brown champignons). Remove the stems and cut the caps into thin slices.
4. Use the stems for cooking your vegetable stock together with any veggies you have, like carrots, celery and onion. Obviously, it’s always good to cook your own stock, however, in order to save time, sometimes I use bouillon cubes. If you are also short on time, just bring 1 litre of water to boil and add 1 bouillon cube. Just make sure that it is a good quality one.
NB! Keep your broth very hot, almost boiled.
5. Preheat a medium size pan. Add the olive oil and sliced mushrooms. Cook them on a high heat for 5 min, stirring regularly. Then add the black pepper and paprika, turn the heat to low, and fry further 5 min. Remove from the heat and add a pinch of salt.
6. Finely chop the onion. Smash the garlic with the flat side of the knife and remove the paper-skin.
7. In the separate pan, melt the remain butter (30 g) over the low heat and add your chopped onions. Cook it for approximately 5 minutes. Then add the garlic and cook further for 5 min until the onion is soft and transparent, but not coloured. Remove the garlic as it’s used only for aroma.
8. Add the rice and turn up the heat to medium-high – the rice will begin to fry, so keep stirring it. After 1 minute it will look slightly translucent and starts absorbing the butter. Now, add the wine and keep stirring (we can already call this risotto incredible, that’s how it will smell when you add the wine! :)). Do not worry alcohol will evaporate, leaving only fantastic flavours.
9. Once the wine has cooked into rice, add the first ladle of hot bouillon. Turn the heat to medium-low so the rice doesn’t cook too quickly. Keep adding ladles of bouillon, stirring. Allow each ladle to be absorbed before adding the next one. After 10 minutes add your cooked mushrooms. Carry on adding bouillon until the rice is soft, but still has a slight bite in it. Don’t forget to check seasoning, but carefully, remember you will late add the Parmesan and it is salty. If you run out of stock before the rice is cooked, add some boiling water. Usually, it takes around 20 min for rice to be ready from the moment it was added into the pan, however, the time may vary. Taste the rice to understand when it is perfect.
10. Finally, remove the pan from the heat, add the butter (30 g) from the fridge and the grated Parmesan cheese. Stir well. Place the lid on the pan and allow to rest for 2 minutes – this is the most important part of making your risotto perfectly creamy.
12. Serve it immediately and enjoy your delicious risotto!
