Mushroom risotto with pecorino romano

Kanela Fina
Apr 24, 2022
3 min read

Once upon a time, when I was a young teenager, there was a little Italian restaurant downtown famous due to the lovely food made by the Italian chef. For many years, I used to visit with my family or friends, and I'd always order their beef carpaccio as the entrée, and the five cheeses risotto as the main. The risotto, which if I close my eyes and try real hard, I can still remember, was cooked to perfection, with a rich taste from the mixture of mozzarella, emmenthal, parmesan, roquefort, and gorgonzola.

Overtime, I cultivated a deep affection for risotto that can only compare to having comfy mac n' cheese. Anyhow, the risotto that I bring today is quite popular and tends to be a crowd pleasure. The combination made by rice, cheese and mushrooms, where all the flavours are balanced and spread around one's tongue, is one I go back often.

I find that people tend to find risottos quite frightening, but I think that if you get the basics right, there's nothing to fear. And what are the basics, you may ask? Well, I think that the basics are:

A good quality risotto rice: The most popular varities are arborio and carnaroli
Good quality cheese: most recipes call for Parmesan, but I tend to add a mixture of Parmesan and any other strong cheese I have on hand, like Pecorino or Tomme.
A hot (attention: not boiling, not cold) stock
Following the right technique: That's, to me, as important as having good quality ingredients. We need to respect the times, the temperatures and the textures. I'm pretty sure that if you know how a good risotto tastes and you follow these instructions, you might end with a decent meal, pinky promise :)

Mushroom risotto with Pecorino Romano

Yields: 2 very hungry people

Author: Montse

Ingredients:

1 cup Arborio or Carnaroli rice

1 cup dry mushrooms mixture (or fresh ones)

2 shallots, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons unsalted butter (or half butter, half olive oil)

1/3 cup white wine

1 litre mushroom stock (or veggie)

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Pinch of salt

1/3 cup grated Pecorino Romano (alternatively use a mixture of Parmesan and Pecorino, or other)

Extra virgin olive oil, to serve

Method:

Add the mushrooms to a medium-sized bowl and pour boiling water to cover. Let the mushrooms hydrate for at least for 20 minutes, otherwise the texture will be gummy. If you use fresh mushrooms, skip this step and simply slice them.
Pour the stock in a medium-sized pan and bring to boil. Immediately once it starts boiling, reduce to the lowest setting and cover with a lid.
Meanwhile, in a medium-heat pan, melt the butter and add the shallots. Stir the shallots and cook for 5 minutes, until slightly golden-brown.
Add the rice and coat well with the remaining fat from cooking the shallots. Stir and cook for about 2 minutes, until all is absorved and the rice starts turning a bit gold.
It's time to add the hydrated mushrooms to the pan. Tip: Reserve the water from from the mushroom for later in case you run out of stock and the rice needs some more liquid to fully cook.
Then, add the wine and coat the rice thoroughly so it absorbs as much moisture as possible.
Once all the wine has evaporated, it's time to add the stock. Using a big ladle, add about 1-2 cups of stock at a time, not adding more until the previous is fully absorbed. It's very important to keep stirring so the rice cooks evenly.
Repeat until no more stock is left and the rice is fully cooked, al dente but not mushy. With the above mentioned quantities, it might take about 20 minutes to cook. When you run the spatula through the risotto, the creamy rice should flow back evenly, like a wave or alla onda.