Creamy Mushroom Risotto
Risotto is a favorite around this house. It is the ultimate comfort food! Creamy, cheesy rice...be still my beating heart! So when Baxter requested mushroom risotto, I was quick to agree. I make this a lot when I have dinner parties because it is relatively inexpensive, deceivingly simply, and easy to make mass quantities. Bonus: you get a serious arm workout while making risotto!
Let's get to cooking! Before I did anything, I put the beef broth in a sauce pan on simmer. I then added a couple pieces of chopped bacon in my pan. Because let's be honest, bacon fat makes everything taste better. Once the fat begins to liquify in the hot pan, I added the diced onion. After 2-3 minutes, the onions become translucent and it was time to add the mushrooms.
Once the mushrooms and onions are softened and golden, add the Arborio rice. It has to be this type of rice because it has a high starch content that makes the risotto have that creamy texture. Cook the rice for 1-2 minutes in pan with the onions and mushrooms.
After the rice is fully incorporated with the veggies, add a ladle of broth and stir. Once the broth is absorbed, continue slowly adding broth ladle-by-ladle and stirring until rice is al dente. This will take 20-30 minutes...this is where the arm workout comes in ;-)
You know to add another ladle of broth once you can scrape the rice to the side in the pan and it does not immediately run back together.
After Rosie saw the bacon and block of parmesan, she parked her butt and turned on that charm. I'm a sucker.
Now for the cheese! The best part!
I served it up with a seared ribeye and some extra cheese on top. There are so many variations on risotto. I always keep Arborio rice and boxes of broth around the house to whip up risotto with whatever produce I have laying around. So good!
