Parmesan Mushroom Risotto is a creamy side dish that tastes like love and patience, but is incredibly easy to make, complementing any main dish.
Flavorful and comforting Parmesan Mushroom Risotto is a gorgeous dish that elevates any meal you serve it with! Creating the risotto, which involves rice, chicken stock, wine, and Parmesan cheese, takes a little time. Once you’ve sautéed the sliced mushrooms with wine and heavy cream to make a lovely mushroom sauce, you have an irresistible, crowd-pleasing dish.
A Gorgeous Classic
Risotto, whether at a fine restaurant or at home, evokes thoughts of a romantic date night. While this dish isn’t complicated, it is a labor of love, making it perfect for special occasions and delightfully memorable. Parmesan Mushroom Risotto is a creamy combination of rice, wine, and parmesan cheese, topped with a savory mushroom sauce that pairs perfectly with date-night dishes like lobster, steak, or any other main course. Your loved ones will talk about the amazing risotto you made for years, and even if they don’t remember the occasion, they will remember that the night was indeed memorable.
From start to finish, your excellent dinner of risotto served with vibrant Lobster Tail or eye-catching Balsamic Steak Roll-Ups will impress your date or guests!
Other Recipes to Serve with Parmesan Mushroom Risotto
- Start the night with a beautiful and delicious appetizer of Apricot, Goat Cheese, and Caramelized Onion Crostini.
- Decadent Kahlua Cheesecake is the perfect make-ahead dessert that will awe and delight everyone, and is a great way to end the night!
Ingredients
Pantry Ingredients: For this risotto, you will need Arborio rice, chicken stock, and olive oil. To make this dish vegetarian, be sure to use vegetable stock instead.
Refrigerated Items: Pick up a block of Parmesan to finely grate, salted butter, and heavy cream.
Produce: You will need an onion to dice and mushrooms to slice for this recipe. You can choose to use white button mushrooms, baby Bella mushrooms, or a mix of your favorite mushrooms.
Wine: Select a bottle of your favorite dry white wine to pair with this risotto dish.
Seasoning: Add salt and pepper to taste.
How to Make Parmesan Mushroom Risotto
STEP ONE: Add the chicken stock to a small saucepan and heat over low heat. Add a little olive oil to a large pot over medium heat. Once the pot is hot, add the rice and stir for 1-2 minutes. Add 1/4 cup of wine to the rice and stir.
STEP TWO: Once the rice has absorbed the wine, add one ladle of chicken stock to the rice and stir. Allow the rice to absorb the stock before adding another ladleful, stirring often. Continue this process until all of the stock has been added and absorbed.
STEP THREE: While the rice is cooking, heat another pan with butter over medium heat. Add the onions and cook for 2-3 minutes, until they are softened. Then, add the sliced mushrooms to the pan and stir.
STEP FOUR: Once the mushrooms have browned, add the wine and continue cooking to reduce it by half. Add the heavy cream to the mushrooms and stir until well combined. Continue to cook until the cream has been reduced by half.
STEP FIVE: Stir the Parmesan cheese into the rice until it has melted. Check the seasoning of the risotto and add salt and pepper to taste. To serve, place a portion of risotto on a plate and top with a ladle of mushroom sauce.
Tips for Success
- One of the key tips for making the perfect risotto is to heat the stock before adding it to the rice. Therefore, remember to warm your stock before you begin cooking the rice.
- Be sure to allow the rice to absorb the stock before adding more. By the end, the risotto will be a little “liquidy,” which is what you want. Dry risotto means it’s either under- or overcooked, and you want just enough liquid that the risotto is cooked and can spread a little.
- Store leftover risotto in the fridge, covered, for up to three days. You may need to add a little stock or water when reheating if it becomes too thick.
What is the secret to great risotto?
Everyone loves the hearty, creamy texture of risotto, and the key to achieving that is stirring. The more you stir and agitate rice, the more starch is released, which is what makes risotto creamy and other rices fluffy. Each time you add a ladle of stock, stir the rice until the stock is absorbed, which helps the rice absorb the liquid and release the starch needed to make this an excellent risotto.
What not to do when making risotto?
According to professional and home chefs far and wide, there are a few things you can avoid to make sure you create the best risotto ever! The first is to choose the right rice. Arborio rice is perfect because it is a short-grain rice with a high starch content, which helps create an al dente risotto. Secondly, don’t rinse your rice. In this case, you want to maintain all of the starch in the rice to help create the creaminess risotto is famous for. Lastly, remember to stir the risotto often but not constantly. You want to be sure to give your risotto time to develop the texture and flavor you love, so it needs a little time to sit. Stirring around every 30 seconds or so should do the trick.
More Delicious Sides to Enjoy
- Parmesan and Rosemary Potato Stacks
- Cheesy Roasted Garlic Rice
- Simply Delicious Blistered Tomatoes
- Brussels Sprouts with Bacon, Dates, and Apples
- Squash & Sweet Potato Gratin
*This post originally posted on 02/07/2016.
Ingredients
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup arborio rice
- ½ cup dry white wine divded
- 2 tablespoons butter
- ¼ cup yellow onion peeled and finely diced
- 16 ounces button mushrooms cleaned and sliced
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese grated
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place a medium saucepan over low heat. Add the chicken stock and heat until warmed through.
- Place a large pot over medium heat. Add the olive oil. Once hot, add the rice and stir quickly for 1-2 minutes, or until it has a slightly nutty smell. Add 1/4 cup of wine to the pot and keep stirring the rice until the liquid is almost gone.
- Add 1 ladle full of the warm broth to the pot. Continue stirring until the liquid is absorbed. Repeat adding the broth and stirring until it is absorbed, until all of the broth has been incorporated. The rice should have a porridge-like texture.
- While the rice is cooking, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the onions and cook for 2-3 minutes until softened, stirring often. Add the mushrooms and cook until they are browned and tender.
- Add 1/4 cup of wine to the mushrooms. Cook until the liquid has reduced by half. Add heavy cream and continue to cook until the liquid has reduced by half again.
- Stir the Parmesan cheese into the risotto until melted. Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve the risotto and spoon the mushroom sauce over each portion, dividing it evenly between the plates.
Liz says
Love your rice and mushrooms. Thank you.