Anyone who has ever been to Italy and tasted a real Italian risotto knows how delicious this dish can be. To help you create the perfect risotto, we have written a guide here. In the recipe below we have made a truffle risotto.
What is risotto and where does it come from?
Risotto is a rice dish where the rice is cooked in a stock. It is a typical northern Italian dish that has since found its way to the rest of the world.
You can only prepare risotto with a special kind of rice. A risotto rice must be able to absorb a lot of moisture and at the same time remain intact during cooking in the broth. In addition, the rice grain must release starch for the binding with the broth.
As most people think that almost all rice comes from Asia, by far most Risotto rice comes from Italy and specifically from the northern part of Italy.
There are several types of risotto rice, namely: Vialone Nano, Arborio and Carnaroli. Each grain has its own characteristics. Because we love creamy risotto, we prefer the Carnaroli risotto. It contains more starch, so you have more binding and the risotto is creamier.
Variety endlessly
You can vary endlessly with risotto. In the recipe below a risotto with forest mushrooms and truffle. We were lucky enough to use real truffles. Don’t worry if you can’t get your hands on this, most supermarkets sell packs of risotto rice with truffle flavour.
Would you like to put an awesome dish of risotto on the table as well? Then follow the recipe below.
Truffle risotto with oyster mushrooms and chestnut mushrooms
Ingredients
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 shallots
- 250 gr risotto with truffle
- 100 ml white wine
- 2 jars of 380 ml forest mushroom stock
- 150 gr oyster mushrooms
- 150 gr chestnut mushrooms
- 60 gr parmesan cheese grated
- 30 gr butter unsalted
- olive oil
Instructions
- Mince the shallots and garlic. Heat a frying pan and add a generous splash of olive oil. Briefly fry the shallots and garlic.
- Add the risotto rice to the shallots and garlic and fry for about 3 minutes until it looks glassy.
- Meanwhile, heat the wild mushroom stock in a pan.
- Add the white wine to the risotto and keep stirring until the wine has been absorbed by the rice.
- Meanwhile, cut the oyster mushrooms and chestnut mushrooms into coarse pieces and fry them in a pan until golden brown.
- Now comes the important part of the dish. Add a soup spoon of forest mushroom stock to the pan with risotto rice. Keep the fire medium high and keep stirring until the forest mushroom soup has been absorbed by the rice.
- Repeat this until the rice is cooked. This takes about 20 minutes. The rice is ready when it is al dente, the rice grain is then soft on the outside, but still has a light bite to the core.
- To make the risotto even creamier, we are adding the butter and parmesan cheese to the risotto. Keep stirring the pan thoroughly.
- The risotto is now ready. For the presentation you can place the risotto on your plate in a round mold.
- Use the fried oyster mushrooms and chestnut mushrooms as a garnish with the risotto or add them to the pan of risotto.
- If available: shave some truffle on top of the risotto.