Risotto with Radicchio and Mushrooms

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1-1/4 cups of carnaroli, arborio, or vialona nano rice
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 stick of butter
1-1/2 cups diced mixed mushrooms chopped medium
2 shallots chopped fine
1 small radicchio (or 1/2 large one) sliced fine, then chopped into bite sized pieces
2-1/2 cups warm stock or water (more may be needed)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tsp salt
1 tsp fresh cracked pepper

Sauté mushrooms till soft but not too soft, set aside in a separate bowl. Sauté shallots with 1/3 of the butter and when translucent add to mushrooms. Sauté till al dente radicchio with another 1/3 of the butter. Then add to mushroom and shallot mixture. Add last 1/3 of butter and add rice and cook till slightly toasty and brown but not burnt.

Start adding warm stock or warm water half a cup at a time stirring judiciously. The idea is to add liquid to the rice slowly to bring out the starch and make it creamy. Now is the time to add the salt and half of the pepper. As soon as the water or stock is absorbed add another half a cup and so on and keep stirring. This will take some time, at least 1/2 an hour or more. Don't get over anxious and add too much water, this is an exercise in patience. I cheated and used long grain white rice (because that's all I had) and it took me over an hour to make this risotto. I now see I need to us a proper rice for a proper risotto, next time.

When rice starts to plump up after 2/3 of the cooking time, add the white wine and 1/3 of mushroom, shallot and radicchio mixture thus allowing time to cook the alcohol out of the wine. As before when moisture is absorbed into the rice, continue adding water or stock to cook the mixture. When rice is almost completely softened, add the remainder of the mushroom, shallot and radicchio mixture. Serve and top with remainder of fresh cracked black pepper and fresh grated parmesan cheese. Enjoy. (Images borrowed from the net).

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