Wild mushroom risotto

Dave and I visited a winter farmer's market in Oak Park on Sunday, where we picked up some cheese curds and a huge bag of mushrooms. I decided to use those mushrooms for some wonderful new Ina Garten recipes this week. Tonight: wild mushroom risotto (from Ina's Back to Basics cookbook).

I have never made risotto - I have always wanted to, but I have been really afraid that I would end up with a big glob of gluey, inedible rice. No more! I have to tell you that this was one of my favorite Ina recipes of all time. And that's saying something.

You start this recipe by sauteeing some shallots, pancetta, and mushrooms. I cut some corners because (1) our Jewel was out of pancetta, so I used Canadian bacon, and (2) the recipe calls for porcini and morels, but I used what was in our mushroom bag: baby portobellos, shiitakes, and oysters. I still think the recipe turned out amazingly well because of the quality of ingredients, since these were fresh-picked mushrooms, even though they weren't the type that Ina specified.


After you've sauteed all that in some butter, it starts to become incredibly aromatic. You toss in your arborio rice to coat with butter, and then pour in some white wine to soak into the rice and aromatic vegetables.


At this point, you start adding in heated chicken broth a ladle at a time, stirring the rice to agitate the starches off of the rice grains and create a creamy texture. When you're done, you toss it with some freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheese. I happen to have a large brick of parmigiano by virtue of a sale at Whole Foods. Mmm.

I served this wonderful risotto with a salad of organic baby greens, which was also on sale at Dominicks. See how easy it is to eat well (and cheap)?!


I should also mention that I enjoyed this dinner with a kir and a small piece of dark chocolate with dried pear pieces. Are we food dorks, or what.

Anyway, it was an amazing dinner, and the risotto definitely makes it into the collection of recipes that I'm preparing. I want a cookbook of my favorite recipes for my own purposes, but I also plan to use the collection to raise money for charity. Next time, I would like to try morels (although I don't really care what other kinds of mushrooms go in, as long as they are fresh). This was an amazing recipe, and I'm so happy I made it.

Tomorrow, mushroom-palooza continues with cream of wild mushroom soup!