Sunset Hush Cooking

Main course

Mushroom Risotto

Written by

Sunset Hush Homemaking

September 25, 2026

Ingredients

300 g arborio or carnaroli rice
15 g dried porchini mushrooms + a cup of boiling water
600 g mushrooms
300 g onion (2 medium onions)
5 garlic cloves
50 g butter, divided into two portions
70 g grated parmesan
1.2 – 1.5 l vegetable & mushroom stock
1/2 cup dry white wine

Stock (things you can use):

mushroom stems
dried mushrooms
onion (parts not used in cooking, but not the dry layers)
carrot peels
parmesan rim (packed with flavour!)
celery
parsley stems
salt (crucial)
bay leaves
allspice berries

Garnish:

reserved fried mushrooms
1/2 cup parsley
olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
zest of half a lemon
salt
black pepper

Instructions

If you don’t have vegetable or mushroom-vegetable broth ready, make it from scratch. Mix vegetable scraps (but avoid dry onion peels, they might make stock taste bitter), mushroom stems, salt for seasoning, optionally – dried mushrooms, a parmesan rim, bay leaves and allspice berries. Let it simmer for about 20 minutes and then keep it hot on the stove.
Make sure the stock you will be using for cooking risotto is hot. If you are going to use pre-made stock, heat it up on the stove until it boils, then lower the heat to low.
Prepare the mushrooms and vegetables: slice 600 g of mushrooms into semi-thin (about half a centimetre / 1/4 inch) slices, finely chop 300 g of onion (two medium-sized onions), finely chop 5 cloves of garlic.
Soak 15 g of dried porchini mushrooms in a cup of boiling water for about 10 minutes. Then squeeze out the water and finely chop them. Reserve the water and add it to the stock.
In a pan on high heat, add oil and start frying mushrooms. Do not overcrowd the pan (otherwise browning will be more challenging). Use a big pan and / or fry mushrooms in batches. Add a pinch of salt and fry mushrooms on high heat until water evaporates, then reduce the heat to medium and fry mushrooms until golden brown. Transfer the mushrooms onto a plate or shallow tray, arranging them in a thin layer, so that the golden crust doesn’t become mushy. Reserve the oil from frying and add more if needed.
Increase the heat to medium high and add onions to the pan where mushrooms were frying. Sautee them until they get soft and brown-ish.
Add chopped porchini mushrooms and garlic and fry for about a minute until the garlic gets fragrant.
Add 25 g of butter and 300 g of arborio or (better) carnaroli rice, and fry the rice until it turns slightly golden, stirring occasionally.
Deglaze the pan with 1/2 cup of white dry wine. Mix it with the rice and wait until it gets soaked in.
Now, add little portions (1/3 cup) of hot stock, stirring constantly. Once the liquid gets soaked in, add the next portion. This will take about 25 minutes and 1.2 l of stock. Risotto is done when rice is al dente – fully cooked on the outside and slightly chewy in the middle.
Add fried mushrooms (reserve about 1/3-1/2 cup of them), 25 g butter, and 70 g of grated parmesan cheese and mix.
For garnish, finely chop 1/2 cup of parsley, add it to the reserved mushrooms, add zest of half a lemon, freshly cracked black pepper, 1 tsp lemon juice, and salt for seasoning.
Serve risotto on a shallow plate. Tap the bottom of the plate to help risotto spread in an even layer.
Add the mushroom garnish, some more black pepper, fresh herbs, grated parmesan cheese, and a drizzle of olive oil. Serve immediately and enjoy!

Tips

If you run out of vegetable stock and the risotto is not done yet, you can use just hot water instead.
The stock you are adding must be hot. You can keep it on very low heat while the rice is cooking.
Arborio rice is much more common than carnaroli, although carnaroli is considered to give a better texture to risotto with individual grains more distinct.
Make sure to not burn garlic. It shouldn’t get golden either. It needs to be cooked with onions and porchini mushrooms for just a little bit until it is fragrant.
Rice should be cooked until al dente, just like pasta – cooked on the outside and somewhat chewy in the very middle.
In the last 5 minutes of cooking, you can add dried or fresh herbs like thyme, oregano, majoram.