Mushroom and chickpea risotto, Italy

Name: Mushroom and chickpea risotto
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: 320 g arborio or carnaroli rice; 400 g button mushrooms, sliced; 20 g dried porcini; 1 tin chickpeas (240 g drained); 1 onion, finely chopped; 2 garlic cloves, chopped; 100 ml dry white wine; 1.2 L hot vegetable stock, labelled gluten free; 3 tbsp olive oil; 30 g butter; 60 g grated parmesan (or nutritional yeast labelled gluten free for a vegan version); Chopped flat-leaf parsley; Salt and pepper

Method

Soak the porcini in 200 ml hot water for 15 minutes. Drain, keeping the liquid, and chop them.
Fry the button mushrooms in 1 tbsp oil over high heat until golden. Salt and set aside.
In a wide pan, sweat the onion and garlic in the remaining oil for 5 minutes. Add the rice and toast for 2 minutes.
Pour in the wine and let it evaporate. Add the porcini and their strained liquid.
Add the stock a ladle at a time, stirring, waiting for each to be absorbed before adding more. Allow 18 minutes.
Add the mushrooms and chickpeas for the last 5 minutes. Off the heat, stir in the butter and parmesan, cover for 2 minutes. Serve with parsley and pepper.

Risotto should be all’onda: it ripples on the plate. If it is too stiff, add a ladle of stock at the last moment.

The techniques this recipe uses

Drain and rinse
Canning liquid clouds a sauce and salts it blind: rinse until the water runs clear.
Sweat the aromatics
Medium heat, no browning: the onion should turn translucent and sweet, not toasted.
Reduce
Uncovered, water leaves and flavour concentrates. It is done when the sauce coats the back of a spoon.

Frequently asked questions

What does all'onda mean?

It describes the texture you are after: the risotto should ripple when you tilt the plate, neither stiff nor soupy. If it is too firm at serving time, a ladle of hot stock stirred in off the heat brings it back.

Do I really need to add the stock a ladle at a time?

Yes, that rhythm of absorbing and stirring is what draws starch out of the rice and creates the creaminess, with no cream added. Pouring it all in at once is closer to a pilaf: the grains cook, but nothing binds the dish.

How do I make a vegan version?

Use nutritional yeast in place of the parmesan, as the ingredient list allows, and good olive oil or margarine instead of the final butter. Keep the off-heat finishing step, covered for two minutes, which is what makes it creamy.

Cooking rice for the dish you actually want

Four methods cover almost every rice dish. Which grain to pick, whether to rinse, how much water, what heat, and why the resting time matters.

Italian vegetarian cooking, the cucina povera way

Why the everyday repertoire of the Italian countryside does without meat, how to bind a sauce with pasta water, and what stale bread can do.

The chickpea, from one kitchen to the next

The chickpea’s four states — raw ground, cooked whole, puréed, milled to flour — what each one makes possible, and why a tin cannot stand in for them.

Mushroom and chickpea risotto

Method

The techniques this recipe uses

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Nutrition per serving

Frequently asked questions

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