Mushroom Risotto

Last Saturday our friend, Mark, came over for an Italian dinner. For our primo I cooked mushroom risotto. I developed this recipe based on a lesson we learned with Roberto, executive chef at Il Silene in Pescina.

For this recipe, you can use any combination of fresh mushrooms. You can also throw in dried mushrooms that have been soaked in warm water for 15 minutes. Strain the soaking liquid to remove and sand and add it to the risotto while cooking.

Instead of arborio rice, I used carnaroli rice which is also an Italian medium grain rice whose kernels are a bit shorter than arborio. You might be able to find carnaroli in Italian grocery stores like La Grotta del Formaggio or Gourmet Warehouse. If not, arborio would be just fine!

You can garnish the risotto with large flakes of parmesan or drizzle with white truffle oil as we did!