Risotto Funghi with a Southern Italian twist

The taste of the South

Since i started to cook Italian, i learned what Risotto is. Before that i never heard of Risotto :)

You can think it’s only cooked rice, but it’s not. When you make it well, it’s actually very delicious and at restaurants it’s promoted as a deluxe meal + it’s quite expensive there.

I can tell you that when you make this recipe, you probably will fall in love with Risotto too (for a more cheaper price) and homemade always tastes best.

Regulary it’s on my weekly planning to make, cause it’s fast, tasty and healthy + you can mix with other flavours all the time. I have made some variation of Risotto.

It’s really not hard to make, as many people think it’s so difficult. Actually it just asks for some patience. There are some basic rules you have to keep. There are many different tastes of this kind, but the one i like the most is with Mushrooms. It has some kind of Autumn taste, together with the marinated tomatoes...mmmmm......

TIP : Traditional Risotto has 3 basic ingredients to succeed : Garlic, White wine and Parmesan.

The rest is up to you. Cook with care and it needs about 25 minutes to be Bite ready. Stay with your risotto and add Bouillon regulary.

What you’ll need for 2 people : 

2 vegetable bouillon cubes (you can use other too, according to your taste)

1 liter of hot water (i prefer water from a source, not from the tap and boiled in kettle)

2 Onions

3 garlic bulb

3 tablespoons Olive oil (no extra virgine, just normal)

300 gr Risotto

100 ml White wine (quality wine)

1 green bell pepper diced

500 gr fresh Mushrooms (mixed or just normal ones)

15 gr dried Porcini

15 gr dried Forest mushrooms

50 gr Sundried tomatoes

2 tablespoons butter

About 6 branches of parsley (fine cut)

50 gr Parmesan cheese (freshly grated)

RECIPE

1. Solve the 2 Bouillon cubes in 1 liter of water, add the dried Porcini and dried forest mushrooms. Let it soak for at least 15 minutes.

2. Dice the green bell pepper and slice the dried tomatoes in small pieces.

3. Chop the onion and 3 garlic cubes, fry them with the oil in a large pot.

4. Add the wine and let it damp till it’s gone. Then add 1 large spoon of the bouillon. Don’t mind if you add the mushrooms too who soaked in it. Just make sure you add enough juice and stir all the time. 1 large spoon at a time, till it solved again. It means you give the rice the time to swell.

5. When there is only 400 ml of bouillon left, i start to heat a wok and fry the fresh mushrooms.

6. When they start to loose water, add the green bell pepper and dried tomatoes. Stir and wait till you see the green bell is starting to be baked well. Add a large spoon of bouillon to it for the taste.

7. In the meanwhile you added all the bouillon left to the rice. Yes i know.....multitasking :D

8. Chop the parsley and add it to the mushrooms.

9. Add the mushrooms to the finished Risotto and stir well and gently.

10. Turn off the heat and add the butter. Let it melt and you’ll see it becomes more creamy. Risotto has to be creamy, don’t mistake on that.

11. Then add the parmesan and it will become even more creamy...mmmmm....smell that....

12. Add some salt and pepper for the extra finish.

13. Let the risotto rest for 5 minutes with a lid on the pot, so it can spread the whole taste.

* Serve immediately after those 5 minutes with an extra piece of parsley on top. You can not really preserve this risotto for the next day, cause it’s going to be more dry and not creamy anymore. I like it when it’s freshly made, it has the best consistence then.

TIP : To not have any stress in the kitchen i also prepare everything before i turn on the heat. Then i can just add everything when the time is there.

You can have this meal ready in about 35 minutes.

In Pictures