Truffled Mushroom Risotto

Risotto is a fall/winter dish that I cook with friends when everyone is standing around the kitchen drinking some wine, catching up and having some appetizers before the main event.  This makes an excellent side dish or a casual entree especially if you add a protein–I always fresh shrimp or fresh bay scallops.  Regardless, this is truly a dish for gatherings because you don’t want to be stuck in the kitchen stirring by yourself while you miss all the fun.  

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, and another 4 tablespoons for the mushrooms
• 4 cup of Leeks, just the white part, thinly chopped
• 2 cup yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup shallots, finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
• 2 cups of arborio rice
• 1/2 cup of dry white wine
• 6 cups of home made chicken stock, heated in a separate pan
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese plus extra for sprinkling on top
• 1 pound of mixed gourmet mushrooms, or basically anything other than button mushrooms, remove the bottom part of the stems and rough chop they good size
• 4 sprigs of times, stems removed and leaves chopped
• 3 tablespoons of white truffle butter

Making It

• Turn the oven to 400 degrees, spread the mushrooms out on a baking sheet and toss with 4 tablespoons of olive oil, thyme leaves and salt to taste…be easy on the salt as you will fishes the dish with parmesan (salty) and kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, set baking sheet of mushrooms aside
• Take a dutch oven and put over a medium flame and add the butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil and stir until melted, add the onion, shallots and pepper flakes and sauté for 5 minutes.   Add the rice and still for three minutes then add the wine, stir until almost all absorbed, now at this point grab a glass of wine, have some snacks out for guests and stir, chat, stir, sip and repeat…but back to the rice add a cup of the hot chicken stock and stir until this is almost absorbed, you will do this until the stock is gone
• As you are half-way through stirring put the mushroom in the oven and roast for 12 minutes, remove from over and set aside until finishing the rice
• Taste the rice to make sure you do not go beyond al dente, you want a firm feel to it and remember it keeps cooking a bit
• Stir in the truffle butter, parmesan cheese, mushrooms, chives, kosher salt and pepper to taste, transfer to a platter and sprinkle a little more parmesan cheese and chives and more parmesan cheese on top

If you want to make this a one pot meal, add 1 pound of peeled and deveined shrimp to the mushroom the last six minutes of the cooking time