Fresh porcini risotto: mushrooms browned separately to a golden crust, toasted rice and a final toss with butter and Grana. Ready in 50 minutes.
Introduction
Porcini risotto is the risotto of autumn in the mountains and the hills, the one made in the homes of Northern Italy when someone comes back from the woods with a full basket. The ingredients are few: fresh porcini, rice, stock, butter and Grana, with a shallot and a little parsley. The mushroom brings a deep flavour of hazelnut and earth into the rice, and the mantecatura binds it into a glossy cream, all'onda. It is a simple dish to describe and an easy one to get wrong: the typical flaw is a grey risotto, with soft, wet mushrooms and the aroma lost in the stock.
The way to avoid it is the same as for any risotto with a water-rich ingredient. The porcini are browned separately, in a wide pan, with oil, a clove of garlic and a lively heat, a few at a time, until they lose their water and take on a golden crust. They go into the risotto at two moments: one part halfway through cooking, to give the rice flavour, and the rest at the end, so you can feel it between your teeth. That way the mushroom stays a mushroom, and the rice takes on its aroma without boiling in the water the porcini would have released into the casserole.
In the glass we pour the Pinot Nero Veneto IGT Cru Pianezze from Marco Buvoli, a red from the Colli Vicentini with a silky tannin and scents of red fruit, wild herbs and spice, which speaks the same forest-floor language as the porcino. To brown the mushrooms we use the Olio Extravergine Veneto del Grappa DOP from Oro de Pòe.
History of Porcini Mushroom Risotto
Porcini have always been gathered in the woods of the Alps and the Apennines, but for centuries they were above all a mountain food, eaten where it grew. They were eaten trifolati, sautéed with garlic and parsley, with polenta, and those not eaten straight away were cut into slices and dried in the sun or near the fire, to keep the scent of the woods through the winter. It is thanks to the dried mushroom that the porcino came down to the plain and into the cities: light, easy to keep and to carry, it was sold in the markets and ended up in sauces, soups and fillings.
Mushroom risotto was born from the meeting of this ingredient with the rice of the Po Valley, grown across Lombardy, Piedmont and the Veneto since the fifteenth century. It has no birthplace and no date of birth: it is a home dish, which every valley makes its own way. In the Veneto of the hills and the Asiago Plateau they use porcini from the nearby woods, fresh in autumn and dried for the rest of the year, and finish it with butter and Grana; in Lombardy and Piedmont some add a spoonful of cream or replace the Grana with an alpine cheese. The recipe we offer is the one with fresh porcini in season, which needs nothing else.
Ingredients
For the mushrooms
- fresh porcini mushrooms, cleaned400 g
- Olio Extravergine Veneto del Grappa DOP 500ml3 tablespoons
- garlic, one unpeeled clove5 g
- chopped parsley1 tablespoon
- saltto taste
For the risotto
- Carnaroli or Vialone Nano rice320 g
- shallot, very finely chopped40 g
- butter for the soffritto20 g
- dry white wine100 ml
- hot vegetable stock1200 ml
For the final toss
- fridge-cold butter40 g
- grated Grana Padano60 g
- freshly ground black pepperto taste
Nutritional Values per Serving
Values calculated from the recipe's ingredients using the CREA food composition tables, and from the labels of our products where available. They are an estimate per serving, not a laboratory analysis.
Equipment Needed
- Wide, shallow heavy-based casserole
- Wide pan for the mushrooms
- Pot to keep the stock hot
- Soft brush and damp cloth to clean the porcini
- Ladle and wooden spoon
- Small knife and chopping board
- Fine grater
Tip: Fresh porcini are not washed under the tap: they soak up water like a sponge, and a wet mushroom in the pan boils instead of browning. Scrape the base of the stem with a small knife, remove the soil with a soft brush and wipe the cap with a barely damp cloth. If the spongy layer under the cap is soft or greenish, peel it off and discard it. To brown them you need a wide pan: the mushrooms must lie in a single layer, or they release water and do not turn golden.
How to Make Porcini Mushroom Risotto — Traditional Recipe
The porcini
Cut the cleaned porcini into half-centimetre slices, setting aside the finest slices from the caps. Heat the oil in the pan with the unpeeled garlic clove, add the mushrooms in a single layer, in two batches if the pan is not big enough, and brown them over a lively heat for 5-6 minutes without stirring too much, until they are golden on both sides. Salt them only at the end, remove the garlic and sprinkle with the parsley. Set aside a third of the mushrooms, the finest ones. Meanwhile bring the stock to just below the boil.
Chef's tip: The salt goes in at the end of cooking: salted straight away, the porcini draw out their water and, instead of browning, boil in their own liquid, turning soft and grey.
The toasting
In the casserole melt the 20 g of butter and soften the shallot over a gentle heat for four or five minutes, without letting it colour. Raise the flame, pour in the rice and toast it for two or three minutes, stirring, until the grains are hot to the touch and translucent at the edges. Deglaze with the white wine and let it evaporate completely, stirring.
Chef's tip: Shallot is more delicate than onion and does not cover the aroma of the mushrooms. If it burns even slightly it brings a bitterness that the porcino amplifies: better to start the soffritto again.
The cooking
Add the hot stock one ladle at a time, waiting each time until it is almost absorbed, and stir without fussing. After eight minutes add two thirds of the porcini, with their cooking juices, and carry on with the stock. Carnaroli needs 16-18 minutes in all from the first ladle, Vialone Nano 15-16: taste from the fourteenth minute, the grain should stay just al dente.
Chef's tip: Keep the risotto a little looser than you would want it on the plate: during the mantecatura and the resting time the rice keeps absorbing.
The mantecatura
Turn off the heat and wait a minute. Add the cold butter in cubes and the grated Grana and stir vigorously, or shake the casserole back and forth, until the risotto becomes glossy and creamy. Taste, adjust the salt and pepper, cover and leave to rest for two minutes. Serve it all'onda, topped with the porcini slices you set aside and a grind of pepper.
Chef's tip: Warm the slices you set aside for a moment in the mushroom pan before serving: they stay crisp outside and tender inside, and on the plate you can recognise the whole porcino.
Wine to Pair with Porcini Mushroom Risotto
Porcini risotto is one of the few risottos that call for a red wine, and the reason lies in the mushroom. The porcino brings a deep flavour of woods and earth into the rice, which cooks call umami: it is the same round savouriness as meat stock and aged cheese. Around it are the butter and Grana of the mantecatura, which add fat, and the soaking water of dried porcini, if you use them, which concentrates the aroma further. Almost no sweetness: that is what sets it apart from pumpkin risotto and leaves the door open to tannin. So there are three rules. The wine must have an aroma from the same family as the mushroom, or the dish covers it. It must have acidity, to lift the butter of the mantecatura from the palate. And the tannin must be fine, because on a creamy rice a rough tannin turns dry and bitter. The red that answers all three questions is Pinot Nero; if you prefer a white, you need a white with body and a yeasty note, one that can hold its own against the mantecatura.
The Red We Recommend
Pinot Nero Veneto IGT Cru Pianezze — Buvoli — The **Pinot Nero Cru Pianezze from Marco Buvoli** comes from a vineyard in the Colli Vicentini, on clay and limestone soils at about 280 metres, farmed biodynamically and harvested by hand. With porcini risotto it is the pairing of resemblance. On the nose the technical sheet lists small red and black fruits, wild herbs, dark spices and a hint of roasted coffee: it is a forest-floor aroma, and the porcino is the forest floor. Mushroom and wine speak the same language, and neither covers the other. The second tool is the tannin. Fifteen months in French oak tonneaux and more than three years in bottle have made it silky, and a silky tannin on creamy rice does not dry the mouth: it cleans it of butter and Grana, together with the acidity typical of the grape. The limit must be stated: it is a full, rich-bodied red, and on a risotto finished with little cheese, or with small, faintly scented mushrooms, the wine risks staying a step ahead of the dish. It works best when the porcini are well browned, until they take on colour: the golden crust raises the intensity of the dish and calls out the toasty notes of the wine. At 13% vol, serve it at 16-18 °C, in a wide glass, opening the bottle half an hour beforehand.
Want to explore the grape variety? our guide to Pinot Nero
If You Prefer a White Wine
Chardonnay Veneto I.G.T. — Italo Cescon — If the Pinot Nero answers the mushroom, the **Chardonnay Veneto I.G.T. from Italo Cescon** answers the mantecatura, and it is the path for those who do not want a red at the table. It comes from the clay soils along the Piave, in the Treviso area, and matures for four months on the fine lees in steel: that is where the note of bread crust comes from, which the technical sheet lists beside apple and banana. It is that yeasty note that ties the wine to the dish, because it sits close to the butter and the Grana, while the savouriness and freshness lift the fat from the palate with every forkful. The producer himself recommends it with tortelli in butter and sage, and a creamy risotto is a close relative of that dish. The limit is in the aroma: Cescon's Chardonnay is a young, fruity white, with no oak, and it accompanies the woodland flavour of the porcino but does not gather it up the way the Pinot Nero does. It does best when the mushrooms are only lightly browned and the mantecatura is generous. Serve it at 8-10 °C: the sheet says 7-8, but with a hot, rich risotto a degree or two more lets the fruit come through.
Craft Beer as an Alternative
Reckless Bock Beer — Norah's Farm — A dark beer with porcini risotto works for the same reason a red does: roasted malt has the aroma of something cooked for a long time, like the dried mushroom. The **Reckless Bock from Norah's Farm** is a bottom-fermented Dunkel Bock, brewed in the Pedemontana Veneta, deep copper in colour, with notes of caramel and dried fruit. The dried fruit and the roast pick up the earthy, hazelnut flavour of the porcino, and the full body of a double malt keeps pace with the mantecatura without disappearing. The bitterness, which the producer marks as low, supports the malt without clashing with the cheese, and the carbonation carries the butter off the palate with every sip. The limit is the sweetness of the finish: on an under-salted risotto the malt can seem cloying, so it is a beer that asks for a well-seasoned dish and a generous hand with the Grana. At 7% vol it is stronger than an everyday table beer: serve it at 8-10 °C, not ice-cold, because the cold dulls precisely the roasted notes.
Want to explore the style? dark and Bock beers
Variations
- With dried porcini, out of season: soak 30 g of dried porcini in 300 ml of lukewarm water for half an hour, squeeze them out, chop them roughly and add them to the soffritto before the rice. The soaking water, strained through a sieve lined with a sheet of kitchen paper to remove the grit, goes into the stock. The flavour is more concentrated and darker, less fresh: it is the mushroom risotto of the cities and of winter.
- Fresh and dried together: even in the fresh porcini season, 10 g of soaked dried porcini and their strained water in the stock strengthen the aroma, especially when the fresh mushrooms are small or not very fragrant.
- With thyme instead of parsley: a few thyme leaves in the mushroom pan give a more resinous, mountain aroma. Parsley remains the most neutral choice, which lets the mushroom speak.
- With a mountain cheese: half the Grana can be replaced with grated aged Asiago or Monte Veronese, which bring a milkier savouriness and a hint of bitterness, close to the mushroom.
Frequently Asked Questions
Fresh or dried porcini for risotto?
They make two different risottos, both good. **Fresh porcini**, in season from late summer to autumn, give a delicate flavour and a meaty texture, and you can recognise them on the plate. **Dried porcini** have a more intense, darker aroma, almost meaty, but the texture is lost. Out of season use dried ones, 30 g for four people; in season use fresh ones, and if you want a stronger aroma add 10 g of soaked dried porcini.
Can you use frozen porcini?
Yes, and out of season it is a good solution. Put them in the pan still frozen, without thawing them first, over a lively heat and in a single layer, until the water they release has evaporated completely and they begin to turn golden. Thawed at room temperature they go soft and lose their liquid, and with it part of their flavour.
Why are the mushrooms cooked separately?
Because porcini contain a lot of water. If they go raw into the soffritto together with the rice, that water ends up in the casserole, the rice does not toast and the mushrooms boil instead of browning: the risotto comes out grey and the mushroom loses flavour. Browned separately, over a lively heat, the porcini lose their water and take on a golden crust that brings a toasty, hazelnut flavour into the rice.
Can you add cream to mushroom risotto?
You can, but there is no need. The creaminess of risotto comes from the starch of the rice and from the final toss with cold butter and Grana: a spoonful of cream makes it heavier and covers the aroma of the porcino, which is delicate. If the risotto does not come out creamy, usually the rice was stirred too little or the stock was added all at once.
Which wine goes with porcini mushroom risotto?
It is one of the few risottos that go well with a red, as long as it has a fine tannin. **Pinot Nero** is the classic choice: aromas of red fruit and forest floor, a silky tannin and an acidity that cleans the butter from the mouth. If you prefer a white, choose a **Chardonnay** with body and a note of bread crust, which holds its own against the mantecatura. As an alternative, a Bock-style dark beer, with notes of roasted malt and dried fruit.
