Nothing beats a creamy risotto with a garlicky mix of mushrooms. Risotto is such a simple dish, you can hardly go wrong, unless you cook it for too long and it turns a bit into a gloupy mush. But if you keep tasting and testing along the way you’ll be fine.
I used a vegetable stock cube this time, to be honest I do prefer the flavour of homemade stock more, but sometimes you just don’t have this available so this is a pretty good second option for a quick weekday dinner.
I usually deglaze the pan with white wine before adding stock but I didn’t have any open, so decided on dry sherry instead. Lovely combination with earthy mushrooms!
I still had the pesto and some mozzarella left over from the pizza’s I made on Sunday, it’s the first I’ve ever added these to a risotto and it didn’t disappoint!
Mushroom Risotto with Crispy Garlic, Mozzarella and Pesto
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Loading...Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 200g risotto rice
- 1 shallot or small onion, finely chopped
- 1 celery stalk, finely chopped
- 2-3 cloves garlic, finely sliced for risotto
- 2-3 cloves garlic, finely sliced for sautéed mushrooms
- 100g chestnut mushrooms for through the risotto, roughly torn or chopped
- 150g mixed mushroom, roughly torn or chopped
- 1/4 cup white wine or sherry (or leave out if you don't want to use alcohol)
- 1 liter stock (vegetable or chicken stock), you might need less in the end
- 1 handful grated parmesan, ± 80g
- Pepper & Salt
- Toppings (optional)
- 1/2 mozzarella ball, torn
- 2 tbsp pesto, store bought or homemade
- Olive oil to drizzle
Instructions
Prepare the stock in a pan or jug, it needs to be hot.
In a heavy based pan heat the olive oil.
Add the finely chopped onions and sauté for 2 minutes until translucent and fragrant.
Add the garlic and celery and give it a good stir, sauté for 1 minute.
Add the chestnut mushrooms and and give it a good stir, sauté for 2 minute.
Add the rice and stir through, making sure all the rice is covered with the oil, sauté for 1 minute on high heat while you keep stirring.
Deglaze the pan with the sherry or wine and while stirring let the alcohol evaporate.
Add a ladle of stock so the rice mixture is just coved, turn the heat down to medium.
Keep stirring.
In the meantime, in a frying pan or skillet (preferably cast iron) melt some butter and add a drop of olive oil.
When butter is foaming add the garlic and mushrooms. Let sauté in the pan without moving the mushrooms around (see tip in notes). While keeping an eye on the mushrooms continue with the risotto.
As soon as the first ladle of stock has been absorbed by the rice add another ladle and stir.
Repeat this until the rice no longer absorbs any stock, the consistency is nice and juicy and the rice is just cooked (no hard center). I added about 6 ladles of stock, and it took me ± 20 minutes in total to get to the the desired consistency.
In the meantime keep an eye on the mushrooms, when nice and caramelized turn down the heat, season with salt and pepper and stir through the chopped parsley.
When you're happy with the consistency of the risotto, take off the heat and stir through the parmesan until fully absorbed by the sauce.
Taste and season well, now you're ready to plate up. Enjoy!
Notes
When sautéeing mushrooms it's best to not stir them around too much, because they will lose a lot of moisture due to the movement and they will steam rather than get a nice caramelized layer. Once one side has caramelized you can flip them. This way they will keep the moisture in the mushrooms while having an amazingly flavourful outside.
