Mushroom risotto: creamy without cream, with butter and parmesan
Italian technique, Polish button mushrooms: rice toasted on onion, hot stock added a ladle at a time and stirred until the rice releases its starch and turns creamy by itself. At the end cold butter and parmesan beaten in hard, no cream. Forty minutes at the pan, none of which can be skipped, and a dinner that tastes like a restaurant's.
Your own work in that: 40 min.
- Mushrooms 10 min
- Rice and stock 25 min
- Butter and parmesan 5 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneBrown the mushrooms
Heat the stock in a pot with the dried mushrooms and keep it at a low simmer: cold stock stops the rice cooking. Slice the mushrooms. Heat the butter in a large pan over high heat and fry the mushrooms in two batches: each one first 2 minutes without stirring, until browned underneath, then another 1–2 minutes, stirring; about 8 minutes in all. Add the garlic to the last batch for its final minute, salt. Set aside on a plate.
Ingredients: 500 g button mushrooms · 30 g butter · 2 cloves garlic · ½ tsp salt
TipCrowded mushrooms release water and stew grey. In batches, over high heat, without stirring: brown and fragrant.
In batches, until brown, garlic at the endSoften the onion and toast the rice
In the same pan, in the olive oil and butter, soften the finely diced onion 4 minutes. Add the rice and stir 2 minutes, until the grains are glossy and translucent at the edges. Don't rinse the rice: the surface starch is the creaminess of risotto.
Ingredients: 320 g risotto rice (arborio or carnaroli) · 1 pcs onion · 2 tbsp olive oil · 20 g butter · 1200 ml vegetable or chicken stock · 2 pcs dried mushrooms · ½ pcs lemon, juice
Onion translucent, rice glossyAdd the acid
Pour in the lemon juice (or 100 ml white wine) and stir until it evaporates. The acid balances the butter and parmesan at the end.
Rice translucent at the edges, time for the acidAdd the stock a ladle at a time
Add a ladle of hot stock and stir until the rice absorbs it. Add the next. Repeat for 18–20 minutes, stirring often; the rice should always be barely covered with liquid, not swimming. Taste towards the end: the grain should be tender with a slight bite in the centre, the whole loose, creamy, flowing off the spoon.
TipStirring rubs starch off the grains and makes the cream; stock in small amounts lets you control the texture. If the stock runs out, add hot water.
A ladle, stir, absorbed, the nextButter and parmesan off the heat
Take the pan off the heat. Add half the mushrooms, the cold butter cubes and the parmesan and beat vigorously for half a minute, until the risotto is glossy and creamy. Season with pepper and salt. It should be looser than you think: it firms up on the plate within a minute.
Ingredients: 40 g butter · 60 g parmesan · ½ bunch flat-leaf parsley · ½ tsp black pepper
TipCold butter beaten in off the heat emulsifies with the stock and starch into a cream; this step is what makes risotto without cream.
Off the heat, vigorously, glossyServe at once
Spoon onto shallow plates and tap each plate on the counter so the risotto spreads. Top with the remaining mushrooms, parsley and parmesan. Eat immediately: risotto doesn't wait. Shape leftovers into patties the next day and fry in butter.
Spread out, mushrooms and parmesan on top
Before you start
With chanterelles or boletes
Fresh chanterelles in summer, boletes in autumn instead of button mushrooms: 300 g is enough, the flavour is more intense.
With pumpkin
300 g diced pumpkin fried with the onion, sage in butter at the end: an autumn risotto, sweeter.
Risotto gluey like porridge
Too little stock, or cooked too long. The grain should have bite and the whole should flow off the spoon; switch off a minute earlier than seems right.
