mushroom-risotto

I’ve been tinkering with this one and made it last night, and we loved it!

Ingredients

Serves two (double recipe for four)

3+ cups reduced-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth

2 tablespoons butter, divided

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 shallot, finely chopped

3/4 cup Arborio rice or medium-grain white rice

3/4 cup Champagne or white wine (for champagne I use the smallest split, as it is exactly the right quantity for the recipe)

1 cup frozen peas, defrosted

1/4-1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 Tablespoon chopped fresh chives

Directions

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.

In a medium saucepan, bring the chicken stock to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer.

At the same time, in large saucepan, add olive oil and let it heat up.  Add mushrooms and cook for about three minutes, or until brown.  Remove and put on cookie sheet in oven to keep warm.

In the same saucepan as the mushrooms were cooked, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter. Add the shallot and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Add the Arborio rice and stir to coat in the butter. Continue toasting the rice, stirring constantly, for about 3 minutes more. Add the Champagne or white wine and simmer until the liquid has almost evaporated, about 3 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of the simmering broth and stir until almost completely absorbed, about 2 minutes.

Continue cooking the rice, adding the broth 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly and allowing each addition of broth to absorb before adding the next, until the rice is tender but still firm to the bite and the mixture is creamy, about 20 minutes total. If you like a more tender rice, add more broth. Remove from the heat. Gently stir in the mushrooms, peas, remaining butter, Parmesan, salt, and pepper. Spoon the risotto into serving dishes and garnish with chives. Serve immediately with additional parmesan, if desired. I like to serve it with a parmesan crisp, recipe included in my blog.

Recipe adapted from Giada De Laurentiis