Fun with Funghi: Risotto ai Porcini e Tartufo

FINALLY I can update again. Sorry for the long delay folks, my internet has been absolutely atrocious for a while now. I've been plugging away at my work at the monastery (hard to believe I've been here over a month now), though you never make as much progress as you want to. The internet seems to be working pretty well today, so it's time for a new food update!

The weather here has started to turn, and it's feeling more and more like Fall every day. Taking this into consideration, it seems like a good opportunity to cover some good Italian comfort food: risotto.

Carnaroli rice, shortly before fulfilling its destiny as a delicious risotto

The history of risotto is somewhat contested, but the traditional story as that it was introduced in Milan by the Spanish in the early 16th century. This first style, risotto alla milanese, remains a classic, but it requires saffron, an ingredient that is one of the most expensive substances in the world by weight. Unlike almost any other style of risotto, it is served alongside the main course, traditionally osso bucco. That's all too rich for my blood (plus I don't know how to track any saffron down here), so I'm going with another classic, risotto ai porcini e tartufo. Traditionally this would be a primo, a first course before the main course consisting of some kind of meat or fish and a vegetable side dish. A whole pot of this stuff is more than enough for an entire meal anyway, so this is a bit non-traditional I guess.

Much prettier than what I made, but this is what you're going for.

Now, some of you reading this are probably thinking that you've heard of risotto, and it's waaaaay too complicated for you to try making. Put this out of your head! There's no reason to be intimidated by this dish; the only vaguely difficult thing is that you need to be attentive while you're cooking. This is not a set-it-and-forget-it dish: you'll need to be watching and stirring for around 20 continuous minutes. Otherwise though, it's easy-peasy. Another misconception that I'll dispel here at the outset: while you may have seen (or even eaten) risotto at a restaurant that holds its shape, that's really an overcooked dish. You don't want a soupy final product, but you want it to "ooze" a bit. The key to making a good risotto is using the right kind of rice (more on that in a moment), and keeping the solid to liquid ratio correct so that the starch in the rice gets converted into a delicious, creamy sauce (almost a gravy) that connects all of those individual grains of rice. If you wind up with something that's about the consistency of fried rice, you've gone too far. It'll still taste fine, but it shouldn't be the goal.

I'm sure this tastes good, but booooooo.

With all that being said, let's get started. For hardware, you'll need a couple pots, one for the risotto itself (if you have a cast iron dutch oven that would be ideal, but don't use it if it's very large and you're not making a large batch. Anything with a little heft to it will be fine) and another to keep the cooking liquid simmering. You also want a ladle as well as a wooden spoon, and of course a knife. Here's my setup:

You can also see the cooking fat melting down here.

As for the actual ingredients, you need rice (either Arborio, Carnaroli, of Vialone Nano. In the US you'll probably only see Arborio), olive oil, butter, a few cloves of garlic, a small onion, some white wine, vegetable broth and/or mushroom broth (I'll get to that), dried porcini mushrooms, parmesan cheese (please don't use the shelf stable junk in a can), and either a black truffle or some kind of prepared black truffle sauce. You should be able to find the porcini in most grocery stores (try either Wegman's or Graul's for those of you in Baltimore, and Kroger should carry them in Ohio). The truffle/truffle sauce may be harder to track down, and you could omit it if you want to. It adds a really great, earthy flavor though. One last note: I don't have any proper measuring equipment here, so I've mostly been eyeballing everything and going by the weight indicated on the packages. This might make it a little tricky to match my exact recipe, but think of it this way: I didn't measure *anything* and it turned out great, so don't sweat the details. To begin, you want to soak your dried mushrooms in hot/warm water for at least 15 minutes or so. I used 50g of mushrooms (a little less than 2 oz), and you want enough water to cover the mushrooms plus a little bit more. Once they've soaked, remove the mushrooms from the liquid and chop them up, but SAVE THAT LIQUID! You basically have mushroom stock now, and it's super tasty. Strain the liquid, preferably through some cheese cloth, as there will likely be a little bit of grit. I unfortunately couldn't do this so I tried just carefully ladling out the liquid without disturbing the sediment, but I still had a little bit make it into my food. Don't be like me, strain the liquid! Also finely dice your onion and garlic. You should have something along these lines:

Meanwhile, put your heavier pot over low heat and with about a tablespoon of olive oil and about 2-3 tablespoons of butter. This seems like a lot, but like I said, this is comfort food! Also, put your strained mushroom liquid into your other pot, and get it simmering. You will need this either simmering or right on the verge for the entirety of the cooking process. Once your butter is melted, add your onion and garlic (along with a little salt) and sweat them. You aren't looking for color here, you just want to soften the onion up.

Try to avoid any errant bits of mushroom. Again, don't be like me!

Once the onion starts looking a bit golden, add in about a 1/4 cup of white wine (dry white wine, of course), and cook until the onion has basically melted. At this point, it's time to add your rice. I used about 300g, which was about half of a small box. Again, this probably isn't super helpful, but this was enough rice for 2 main dish servings. I'm guessing you'd want around 2-3 cups (dry) for 4 people, and I would also double (piu o meno, as they say here) the other ingredients. Add the rice directly to the pot, right from whatever package you bought it in: DO NOT WASH IT. If you rinse the rice, you'll lose all that starchy goodness that makes risotto, well, risotto. Once you've added it, mix it all together thoroughly. The goal here is to get every single grain of rice coated in the oil, butter, garlic, and onion mixture. You'll be able to tell when you're done with this step, as all of the grains will be nice and glossy, and very lightly toasted. What you don't want, though, it to get any color on the rice. That can be very delicious, but again, it's not risotto! If you've stirred and stirred and the grains still don't look coated, you need a little more oil.

Next, add in those chopped porcini mushrooms and stir it up until well mixed:

Looks like wild rice, right?

After all mixed, start adding your simmering mushroom broth. It is SUPER important that your broth be hot, or the rest of the recipe isn't going to turn out right. Also, you only want to add enough to cover the rice mixture. It should look sort of...swampy, if that makes sense, but you don't want the rice drowning in liquid. Too much liquid will turn this into ordinary rice pilaf, instead of creamy risotto. The small amount of liquid turns all that starch into a creamy sauce, so don't drown it!

Something like this is what you're going for.

From here on out, you'll need to be paying close attention to the pot. After adding the broth, stir the simmering mixture near-constantly until the broth has been absorbed into the rice mixture, at which point you add more broth, and so on and so forth. Each time you just want to add a small amount of liquid, just enough to cover the rice. If you run out of mushroom broth, use (simmering!) vegetable broth, or even water in a pinch. Again, there are no firm measurements here: use however much liquid is necessary. You will probably be done this process after about 20 minutes. You want the rice to be "al dente" (which literally means "to the tooth", which really doesn't tell you much), cooked through but with just a slight bit of snap to it. What you don't want is mush, so don't overcook! The only way to tell when this is done is to taste it periodically. If you find yourself in the unfortunate situation of there still being too much liquid in the pot and your rice is basically done, you can crank up the heat and stir like crazy to compensate. This should be a last resort though, it's easy to overcook the rice! When the rice is done, take the pot off the heat and stir in a little more butter (about a tablespoon or so, maybe a touch more) and a generous helping of grated cheese, at least a cup. Then, add your truffle/truffle sauce. I used about a tablespoon of a prepared truffle sauce; if you're using fresh, you would shave it and then add to the mixture. This is what it should look like, more or less:

Those little black flecks are the truffles. Be careful, they have a very powerful flavor, so go easy on them!

This smelled so good that I couldn't wait to eat it long enough to take a picture of the completed plate! Seriously, you need to try this. You could very easily substitute other ingredients for the mushrooms and truffles, but you need to try making it this way at least once. As for what to drink, you could go a couple different directions. You could try a nice acidic white like a Pinot Grigio, to cut through some of the fat in this dish and really let the earthiness of the mushroom and truffle shine through. Alternatively, you could go with a light-ish red, like a Valpolicella, to add a little fruit and freshness to the dish. Personally though, especially if you are including the truffles, I think you need to go with a big red from Piemonte (the region best known for truffles), something made from the Nebbiolo grape. If you're a real oenophile (and have deep pockets) you could drink a nice Barolo, or if you aren't familiar at all with the wines of the region you could try a more simple Langhe Nebbiolo. For me, I think the best option lies in between, with Barbaresco. It's not cheap, but this is not an everyday meal either. The rich, earthiness of these wines work really well with the above risotto, and it's what you'd drink if you were eating this dish in Piemonte. I'll be covering the wines of that region in my next wine update, so keep your eyes peeled.

On Wednesday I'll be heading to Istanbul for a week (to get around that pesky "no more than 90 days in the EU" rule), so my next history update will deal with that area rather than Italy. *Hopefully* I'll be able to update twice in the coming week, but we'll see how it goes. Thanks for reading!