Recipes
Mushroom Risotto
2026-02-12
Mushroom risotto looks like a restaurant dish, but it really only demands patience and steady stirring. The creamy texture doesn’t come from cream at all — it comes from the rice itself. Arborio and carnaroli are both high-starch varieties that release that starch gradually as they cook, binding the stock into a velvety sauce.
Combining fresh cremini mushrooms with dried porcini gives you two mushroom notes at once — the fresh, slightly earthy flavor of cremini and the deep, concentrated flavor of porcini. Be sure to use the porcini soaking liquid in place of some of the stock; that’s where the most intense mushroom flavor ends up, and pouring it down the drain would be a waste.
The core technique of risotto is adding the liquid gradually rather than dumping it all in at once. Constant stirring helps the starch release evenly from the rice grains, while adding stock in stages gives the rice time to absorb it and build texture. Butter and Parmesan get folded in right at the end, off the heat — a step called mantecatura, and it’s what makes risotto genuinely silky.
Serve risotto immediately, while it still spreads slightly across the plate — it keeps thickening as it cools, and reheated leftovers never quite recapture that same creamy consistency.
Ingredients
- 300 g arborio or carnaroli rice
- 400 g cremini mushrooms
- 20 g dried porcini mushrooms
- 1.2 L chicken or vegetable stock
- 1 large onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 120 ml dry white wine
- 60 g butter
- 60 g grated Parmesan
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- salt and black pepper, to taste
- fresh parsley, for serving
Instructions
- Soak the dried porcini in 200 ml hot water for 20 minutes, then strain (reserve the soaking liquid and add it to the stock) and finely chop the mushrooms.
- Bring the stock to a simmer and keep it warm on a neighboring burner.
- Slice the cremini mushrooms and sear them in olive oil over high heat until golden, season with salt, and remove from the pan.
- In the same pan, cook the finely chopped onion in a little oil until soft, add the garlic and porcini, and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the rice and stir to coat every grain in fat, toasting it for 1-2 minutes until the edges turn translucent.
- Pour in the wine and cook, stirring, until it’s almost fully absorbed.
- Add the hot stock one ladle at a time, stirring constantly and letting each addition absorb almost completely before adding the next — this takes about 18-20 minutes.
- Once the rice is creamy on the outside and just al dente in the center, stir the cremini back in, remove from heat, fold in the butter and Parmesan, season with salt and pepper, let it rest for 2 minutes covered, and serve with parsley.
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