Risotto with mushrooms: recipe with photo

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

If today you want to cook something from Italian cuisine or enjoy something unusual and unusual, then you have come to the right place! Today is the time to figure out how homemade mushroom and chicken risotto is prepared, as well as learn the history of this dish.

Meaning of risotto

First, let's find out what kind of dish this is - risotto? This is a traditional Italian dish that appeared relatively recently, but no one knows exactly when. Translated from Italian into Russian, the word risotto literally means "small rice". This is one of the main features of this dish - it uses fine and hard rice. Risotto is incomparable to any other seemingly similar dish, since all the ingredients are added step by step in a certain sequence, which makes it special. It has long been customary to serve this treat to people of noble classes, but this was not the case right away, and why, you can find out below.

Risotto –an easy-to-cook dish in which you can experiment with spices, omit some products from the original recipe, or, conversely, add. Restaurant-quality and home-style options, of course, will differ, but if you decide to cook a dish according to all the rules of Italian cuisine, then this article is especially for you. If you can follow all the subtleties, then you will significantly increase your cooking skill, not only in the field of Italian cuisine, but in general.

The calorie content of this dish is approximately 110 kcal per 100 g, that is, it is a moderately high-calorie meal that will not harm your figure in any way if you allow yourself one serving for lunch or as an early dinner. You won’t need much time to cook risotto, but it all depends on you: if you do several things in parallel, then you will spend no more than an hour cooking.

Versions of appearance of risotto

The very history of this dish is covered in darkness, and no one can tell you reliably and exactly how, who and when invented it. There are many different versions, let's look at a few of them.

1. The first version tells about an absent-minded cook who originally cooked soup in a certain restaurant, but eventually forgot, and all the broth boiled away. Having no more time to prepare a new one, he decided to serve such a dish to the table and, fortunately, the guests even liked it very much. Later, this recipe was officially recorded in many cookbooks in various variations.
2. There is also a version that risotto came from artists. This version is most common among culinary lovers. A rather unusual story took place in Milan. It all started with the fact that the master, decorating the cathedral with his assistants, reproached one of them for using saffron too often, for which everyone called him Saffron. The master said to the assistant: “At this rate, saffron and risotto will be added!” He was very offended by the remark and at the wedding of the master's daughter he put the same saffron in risotto. The guests were surprised by the color of the dish, but after tasting it, they highly appreciated it.
3. And finally, the last, most famous legend, but it is rather not about the origin of the risotto itself, but about its main component - rice. It consists in the fact that once the Milanese ruler sent his subject a bag of grain unknown at that time to anyone. The grain was planted, and a rich harvest was subsequently harvested, since the climate of Italy was ideal for growing round-grain rice. He was a lifesaver for the people of Italy, exhausted by hunger and war.

These are interesting stories that have been passed down from mouth to mouth for a long time, and now we can at least guess which of these legends is true. But at the moment, it’s rather important for us only that this dish has already been invented and we can safely enjoy it.

Criteria for product selection

As it was mentioned earlier, rice has the main and leading role in this dish. Only a few varieties of rice are suitable for true risotto. This, for example, arborio (it is most often used,because it is easier to find in our stores) or carnaroli. Why are only certain varieties of rice suitable? Because they contain the necessary type of starch, which, as it were, softens the rice, but still keeps the core hard, which does not allow the rice to turn into porridge.

An equally important component is the broth. Of course, you can vary it (use meat or fish), but chicken broth still prevails in traditional risotto. In order to add more aroma and taste to your risotto, you can add various seasonings and spices, onions, carrots, or any other vegetables to your taste to the broth. Do not forget about such a seemingly trifle that you need to cook the broth on well-purified water - this also plays an important role.

The next ingredient can be overlooked in cooking at home, but it also adds aroma and flavor, and in traditional risotto you can't do without it. It's about wine. Dry white wine is officially used, but if you want to experiment, you can take both semi-sweet and red, all according to your taste preferences.

Of course, there is no risotto without cheese. The cheese used is usually hard varieties, and most often, of course, Parmesan.

As for mushrooms, many mushrooms will do, but champignons are preferred. Risotto with porcini mushrooms is also a culinary masterpiece. This dish is in no way inferior to its analogue with champignons.

Now, after we have learned the story and figured out a little about the choice of products, we can startdirectly to the preparation of the recipe for risotto with mushrooms. We will consider the photo and purchase the necessary ingredients.

Ingredients

In our article, the ingredients for mushroom risotto are described for approximately 3 servings, but if necessary, you can easily increase them yourself if there are more guests.

So, we need:

1. Rice – 150g
2. Chicken broth – 500g
3. Dry white wine – 150g
4. Cheese - 50g
5. Cep mushrooms or champignons - 200 g.
6. Onion - 1 head.
7. Butter – 30g
8. Garlic - 2-3 cloves (to taste).
9. Greens - to taste.
10. Chicken - 200g
11. S alt, pepper and other spices to taste.

If you have prepared all the necessary products, then below is a delicious classic homemade risotto recipe especially for you.

First step: making chicken broth

For the mushroom risotto recipe, you can cook chicken broth in advance, preferably from chicken legs or wings, so it will turn out more rich and tasty, but if you want to put more chicken in the risotto, you can use the breast. The broth can be either the most ordinary, consisting only of chicken, or with the addition of vegetables and seasonings, which will only improve your dish.

Second stage: vegetable fry

Now you can start roasting. First, heat the pan and add butter: it is believed that risotto tastes better with butter, and noton olive. This is due to the fact that olive trees were not previously grown in Italy, so it is customary to cook risotto with butter.

When the pan is hot enough, add the onion and garlic, which you can grate or cut into small cubes, as you like. A little later, put finely chopped mushrooms. At this stage, it is best to add boiled chicken.

Third stage: Rice frying

Now let's start processing the rice. To begin with, rinse it thoroughly, and then, taking a separate roomy frying pan, fry it also in butter. The main thing here is not to overdo it, otherwise the risotto will lose all its uniqueness in the end.

Now just mix the lightly fried rice with the onions and mushrooms. At this point, you should start slowly adding the wine. Add it little by little until it evaporates completely.

Fourth step: adding stock

It is easy to guess that after the wine, the broth will immediately go, which, according to the same principle, must be added to rice: until it boils away almost completely. Don't forget to stir your mushroom risotto from time to time so that the bottom layers don't burn.

Final stage: design

Next, grate the cheese and, if you like, chop the greens and also add to your risotto for taste.

Note: the fifth point can be skipped if you do not want to add wine to mushroom and chicken risotto, since itdoes not play a leading role in this dish, although it is considered a traditional ingredient.

Well, it's time to serve your meal. The recipe for risotto with chicken and mushrooms turned out to be not so difficult as it might seem. When cooking is over, you should treat yourself and your loved ones. Fragrant food will be the reward for all the work.