🍄Mushroom risotto🍄

1 MISE:

Small dice a shallot and small white onion and reserve. Cube up your guanciale (or pancetta/bacon) into 1/2” cubes and reserve. Grate 1-2 cups of Parmesan or pecorino cheese. Dice the mushrooms into cute bite sized chunks and reserve.

2 COOK:

Cook the guanciale on medium high heat until rendered and crispy—don’t cook so hard that the fat burns. Remove from the pan and let sit on paper towels to dry. Cook the mushrooms in the remaining fat until tender and remove them to a paper towel as well when finished. Add in 2 cups of Arborio rice and toast on low heat. You’ll start to see the outer layer become translucent—do not brown or get any color! This should be a gentle process. Next, add in your onions and sauté until fragrant and translucent. Add in enough wine to cover the rice but do not overfill. Reduce until there’s basically no liquid in the pan. Next, add in your mushroom stock (or whatever stock you have), and just like the wine, do not overfill! Just enough to top the rice. Agitate from time to time but overall you want to slowly and lightly simmer the rice. You will repeat this process with the stock around 3-6 times before you’ll start to notice the liquid starting to thicken and the rice plumping up a bit. Taste one of the rice kernels as you go along each step to help yourself understand how much cooking each step adds so you know when to stop. Once the rice is slightly undercooked, add one more round of liquid and as it reduces, add in salt and about 3/4 of a stick of cubed butter. Start tossing the risotto until your arms get hella tired. You’ll start to see it thicken naturally. Season with cheese, lemon juice, lemon zest, black pepper and fresh thyme. Taste and check for salt and lemon juice.

4 PLATE:

Spoon some onto a plate and either shake it or tap it to get it to flatten. Garnish with the crispy pork and mushrooms, chive, grated cheese and lemon zest and serve.