This traditional Italian mushroom risotto recipe is a rich flavour hit – perfect autumnal comfort food.

Serves: 4 | Prep. time: 15 minutes | Cook time: 35-40 minutes

Ingredients

• 30g dried porcini mushrooms
• 200ml water
• Extra virgin olive oil, for cooking
• 4 shallots, finely chopped
• 400g champignon mushrooms
• 240g carnaroli rice
• 50g white wine
• Salt, to taste
• 1 litre vegetable stock
• 80g butter
• 1 cup Italian parsley, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 80g Parmigiano-Reggiano (Parmesan cheese), grated

making it happen

1. Put the dried porcini and water in a small pot, bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Pour contents of pot into a blender and blend to a smooth paste. 2. In a separate pot, heat some olive oil. Add shallots and quartered champignon mushrooms. 3. Cook until mushrooms are almost tender then add the rice. 4. Allow the rice to heat up before adding the white wine to deglaze the pot, (this will help remove the small bits of shallots and mushrooms that stick to the bottom of the pot). 5. Once the rice has absorbed the wine, season with salt. 6. Add the porcini paste from step 1, and a ladle of the vegetable stock, then stir until the rice absorbs the stock. 7. Continue adding ladles of stock, and allow the rice to absorb it for roughly 15 minutes or until the rice is al dente. 8. Remove from heat and add butter, parsley, garlic, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and most of the grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (keep a small handful of the cheese and parsley to garnish at the end). 9. Mix until you get a smooth creamy consistency, and sprinkle the remaining Parmigiano-Reggiano and parsley on top.

Chef Diego Ghidetti

“My modern Italian cuisine is largely inspired by tradition. I started working in the kitchen in my grandfather’s restaurant, who had by then been a restaurant owner and chef for more than 50 years. My other grandfather also opened a restaurant a few years before that. I grew up in kitchens and collected many memories. After five years I moved to Australia where I worked in several places as I was travelling. Then after three years’ experience owning a restaurant with my mother in Italy, I came back to New Zealand where I started working at Francesca's in Christchurch.”

Three key ingredients to a tasty dish? It has to be garlic, olive oil and tomato.

What is your favourite guilty pleasure? In Italy we have a habit: after finishing our pasta, we scrape the leftover sauce, and sometimes the pan, with some fresh bread. We call it the ‘scarpetta’ and it's a must-do for me.

What is a trend you’re seeing in food? As in many fields, there is now a look to the past and the old ways.

Digest the rest of our discourse with Chef Diego Ghidetti here.

fransitalian.co.nz