Creamy Rice with Mushrooms
A creamy rice with mushrooms made risotto-style, with white wine, butter and Parmesan.
One detail makes the difference: the mushrooms are fried separately, not cooked along with the rice. Mushrooms are mostly water; in the pot they release it and go grey and soft, while in a hot pan they brown. And they are cleaned with a damp cloth rather than under the tap — they soak up whatever they are washed in. The asparagus version is the creamy asparagus risotto.
Ingredients
- 350 g Arborio rice (risotto rice)
- 200 g fresh button mushrooms
- 1 onion
- 250 ml dry white wine
- about 1 litre hot chicken stock (or vegetable stock for a vegetarian version)
- 100 g grated Parmesan
- 1 small bunch of fresh herbs (thyme, rosemary or parsley)
- Butter, as needed, for the onion and the mushrooms
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Method
- 1
Chop the onion finely. In a medium pot, melt a good knob of butter and cook the onion over low heat for about 10 minutes, without letting it take on colour.
- 2
Add the 350 g of Arborio rice and toast it in the butter for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the grains are translucent at the edges.
- 3
Pour in the white wine and let it boil off over high heat. Then add a first ladle of hot stock, drop in the bunch of herbs and season with salt and pepper.
- 4
Turn the heat down and cook uncovered, adding the rest of the hot stock a ladle at a time as the rice absorbs the previous one, stirring regularly. Arborio needs 18 to 20 minutes for this — it should stay al dente, not cook to a mush.
- 5
The mushrooms, separately: while the rice cooks, wipe the mushrooms with a damp cloth (do not wash them under the tap, they soak it up) and slice or quarter them. Fry them in a separate pan with a little butter over high heat until tender and golden.
- 6
Fold the fried mushrooms into the rice and let everything sit together for 2 to 3 minutes so the flavours spread.
- 7
Remove the bunch of herbs. Turn off the heat, add another knob of butter if you like, scatter in the grated Parmesan, stir hard and serve at once, very hot.