Porcini Mushroom Risotto with Dried Porcini (Risotto ai Funghi Porcini)

My brother and his family spent part of the summer in Italy. They brought me a packet of dried porcini (ceps), very typical of Tuscany.

Italians call them funghi porcini; in Spanish they're also known as boletus edulis, their Latin name, and the French call them cèpes. Whatever we call them, they're a delight.

Although at this time of year you can still find them in our woods, dried ones are a very good solution and they last all year.

I'm no great expert on porcini (let's say that if I'm probably not an expert on anything, I'm even less of one on porcini), and I'd never made this risotto, even though it's one of the most common in Italy.

I've sometimes made a risotto with king oyster mushrooms, which is milder.

So, getting to the point: today I made risotto ai funghi porcini, a classic of Italian cooking, and I loved it — it was delicious.

Ingredients for 4 people (roughly, by eye)

• 4 cups of rice
• 25 g dried porcini (they weigh very little)
• 150 ml single cream
• 1 medium onion
• A little oil
• Water (as much as the rice needs)

Method

It's very simple. First rehydrate the mushrooms by soaking them in hot water for no less than 10 minutes. The water will turn brown, and we'll use it later to cook the rice, because it contains a lot of the mushrooms' flavour.

Put a little oil in a pan and gently fry an onion. Drain the rehydrated porcini, chop them as you like and add them to the onion. Stir for two or three minutes, then add the rice, stir it a couple of times and immediately add a little of the mushroom soaking water.

The risotto technique is based on adding the hot liquid (stock, mushroom water, etc.) to the rice little by little and never stopping stirring. The cooking time should be around 18–20 minutes. When there are 4 minutes left, add the cream — about 50 g per person — keep stirring, and the risotto is done.

It's a rice dish in which getting the cooking point right is easier than in, say, a paella, which is much trickier. I encourage you to try it: it's relatively simple and the result is surprising.

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