Risotto with wild Porcini Mushrooms

Rustic Risotto with the heart of the forest, Porcini or Bolete mushrooms!

Ingredients

• 200g Porcini Mushrooms - Boletus Edulis or even better Boletus Aereus
• 100g Rice for Risotto - I like and suggest Arborio or Carnaroli, for sure avoid long rice)
• 1 Garlic
• 50-70g Pecorino cheese
• Butter walnut - a piece of butter of the size of a walnut
• Butter for cooking the mushrooms - another piece, leave the butter walnut for the finishing
• Parsley
• Optional Crushed Hazelnuts or Walnuts.
• Half a glass of Wine - better if white, but the must is: must be dry!

Preparation

As a preparation all you need to do is to chop the mushrooms into chunks like cubes. I suggest to make them small so that more of their incredible taste can be extracted from them. Chop the parsley as fine as it can get, and for that I recommend you use a chef's knife as it provides the best blade angle.
Lastly get the cheese ready as well by grating it as fine as possible. The best grater for me is the tambourine grater, because it gives the comfort that the cheese is landing and gathering directly beneath it, which is great!

Cooking

For Risotto the best is to use a deep and tight pot, not a big one rather, nor a pan.
Heat the pot slowly, and then pour some olive oil. When the oil is a little hot put the garlic and cook it for about 2 minutes. Then put some butter on it and let it melt. and once done put also the mushrooms. Let them cook for about 10 minutes on a medium heat as they get tastier when they are properly browned on both sides - by doing so you are extracting all the taste from them, which is amazingly flavorful, so if they are made into smaller pieces you will feel it even more.

Once you're done with cooking the mushrooms, pour the rice in the pot and toast it for about 2 minutes within the mushrooms, and add a pinch of salt to add flavor, then keep stiring. Once done deglaze all with the wine. Add water with little pinch of salt a bit at a time, or stock - wither vegetable or meat stock - and keep stirring. This way you are extracting starch from the rice that will serve to make the Risotto creamy. Continue like this for about 15-18 minutes, and then turn off the heat.

Finally, let it cool for a minute, and then pour the butter walnut and the pecorino cheese, and mix everything together to get a creamy Risotto. You can choose to mix it with the "wave" technique, which means sauteing the Risotto so it will make waves. The method you choose is up to you, both are equally fine, the important this is that the heat is off in this final step.

Now it's ready to enjoy to the best of its flavor. The mushrooms have been cooked perfectly and all their forest aroma has been extracted, the rice as well, the starch has been put to good use, and the cheese and the butter play their role into making an enveloping incredible cream. Put some parsley on it to finish it, and if you have, also some crashed hazelnuts or walnuts - I find that hazelnuts match even better - and this will take it to its highest as the taste of these nuts is matching very well to the wild boletes, and also offers a combination of textures adding crunchiness to the creamy Risotto.

This is all, enjoy this amazing dish, and I wish you well.

Take care,
George