Risotto ai funghi con porcini - Mushroom risotto with Porcini: a perfect autumn recipe

Last night I turned on the electric fire for the first time after the sweet English summer and thought about listing this recipe that is an ideal Autumn warmer, one of my favourite main courses: mushrooms risotto!
It's a creamy (please don't do it watery! That's a soup, not a risotto!) and fragrant dish, and I love to mix fresh mushrooms and dried porcini with loads of parmesan, but you can use the ingredients up to your taste. Somebody uses parsley too, but I prefer it without, just a matter of personal preference I guess,.

Risotto for 2 -  you will need:

one medium onion
Arborio rice 150 gr  (this rice is rhe ideal one to prepare risotto because of the creamy texture it gives)
fresh mushoroom
dried mushoom ( I could not find only  porcini , so I had to use a mix of them, but nice anyway)
vegetable or chicken stock half litre
butter, pepper and olive oil
parmesan cheese grated

First of all prepare your main ingredients: chop the fresh mushrooms and place the dry ones in a bowl with hot water so that they get the right consistency.

Drain the rehidrated dry mushrooms and make sure you don't throw away the water used for the dry mushrooms, as it's now infused with flavour and will be used later on.



Chop them in fine pieces.




Now that the main ingredients are prepared you can start the base of your risotto, use a small amount of butter in some olive oil and add the chopped onion (I used a red one, but standard onions will be absolitely fine). Stir for some minutes.

Now add the rice to the onion base: it needs to 'toast' for a couple of minutes so don't add any stock yet. This way the rice will be rich of flavour.

Now it's time to add the stock (half of it, as I use it gradually as the rice cooks. And the all  mushrooms. Keep stirring...

I added some drops of black truffle infusion I got in Italy (absolutely personal taste, but wanted to share the idea in case you're fond of the peculiar taste of truffles just as I am)

When the rice is cooked and still not too dry (still has a little bit of liquid stock in it) you will need to turn off the fire and 'Mantecare' that basically means mix some butter and grated parmesan in it and keeping stirring so that the creamy texture and flavours are enhanced.

That's it! This is the basic procedure for any kind of risotto: just change the main ingredients to what you best prefer and you can have endless possibilities to try. Another of my favourite risotto recipes is 'Salsiccia e Zafferano' (Saffron and Sausages) or champaigne and smoked provola. Hmmm...I think I am going to prepare my lunch...quite hungry after this post hehe have you all a great week end!