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People love to complain about making risotto, but I find it to be one of the most relaxing, therapeutic things to do. Here is a very simple recipe for a Creamy Mushroom Risotto that I know you’ll love for the holidays or special dinner at home, just get those stirring arms ready.
Risotto isn’t necessarily “difficult” to make, it just takes some time, attention, patience and little finesse. It does require you hovering over the stove top for about 30 minutes but hey, grab a chair, a glass of wine (or another beverage of choice, maybe a Holiday Clayton Margarita?) and ladle, stir, stir, and ladle again. The end result is creamy, hearty, and just decadent. To me, it’s always worth the tedious time to build more flavor and make a dish extra special. Those are the dishes that are made with the most love!
You can certainly serve this Creamy Mushroom Risotto alone as a nice vegetarian main dish, but you can really top it with any protein! Try it topped with some seared scallops, shrimp or halibut! Or, if you really want to go big — serve it under this delicious Bottle of Wine Braised Brisket for the ultimate entertaining recipe!
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Creamy Mushroom Risotto
Ingredients
- 8 oz bella mushrooms thinly sliced
- 4 oz shitake mushrooms unchopped if they are small. If your shiitake mushrooms are on the larger size, cut them in half
- 8 cups vegetable or chicken broth
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cup finely diced yellow onion
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
- 2 cups uncooked arborio rice
- 1 cup dry white wine I use chardonnay
- 1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Heat the broth in a saucepan over medium heat.
- Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large pot or dutch oven over medium-high heat. Once heated, add the onion, mushrooms, garlic, salt, pepper and fresh thyme leaves. Cook, stirring, until the mushrooms are tender; about 5 minutes.
- Add the rice to the pot and stir to toast the rice until fragrant; about 2 minutes.
- Next, add the white wine and continue to cook stirring until the wine is absorbed.
- Once the wine is absorbed, with a ladle add one cup of the warm broth to the risotto and continue to cook stirring until the broth is absorbed fully.
- Continue to ladle the broth one cup at a time, allowing the rice to absorb most of the liquid before adding more. This process should take 25-30 minutes (and you should use all or almost all of the warm broth from the saucepan). Your rice should be tender and creamy.
- Add the grated parmesan and stir one more until combined.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I made this with the bottle of wine braised brisket last night. Just wow. The texture and flavors were perfect. The reason I make so many of your recipes (both online and cookbook) is that I know they will have wonderful flavors and will work perfectly as written, which is not a given in the world of cookbooks and online recipes. So, thank you for that! Because I needed to finish this up about 20 minutes before serving, I covered it and moved it to a low simmer burner before the last little bit of broth was absorbed. Kept it warm, and the risotto was perfect when I came back to it.