Fall Risotto

It totally feels like fall here in Santa Monica; first day of school for the kids at the school across the street was last Monday and the weather has been cool and overcast.  Feeling in the mood for fall, I made a three mushroom risotto last night based on a dish that our family friend made a few weeks ago.  It's a pretty straight forward dish; just takes a lot of attention as risottos do.

To prep:

• Minced 5 cloves of garlic and a handful of marjoram leaves pulled off the stems (2-3 TB)
• Cleaned, removed stems and sliced 1/2 lb of crimini mushrooms, 1/2 lb of white mushrooms and 1/4 lb of shiitake mushrooms

I heated a good amount of olive oil (~3-5 TB) in the 5 quart Le Creuset oval french oven over medium heat and then:

• Cooked the garlic and marjoram for about a minute until fragrant but before the garlic burned
• Sauteed the mushrooms until they released all their water and all the water evaporated, about 10 minutes.  When the mushrooms were done, I took them out of the pot with a slotted spoon and into a separate bowl

While the mushrooms were sauteing, I chopped 1 leek (I had a leftover leek) and 1 small onion.  After I removed the finished mushrooms from the Le Creuset pot, over the same medium heat and with the leftover olive oil, I:

• Sauteed the onions and leeks until softened, about 8 minutes
• Meanwhile, in a separate pot, heated up 1 box of low sodium chicken broth (~ 4 cups) and 1 cup of water
• To the Le Creuset pot, added 1.5 cups of arborio rice (I just use the Trader Joes brand) and stir around for 1-2 minutes until all coated with oil
• Added 2/3 cups of white wine and stir around until mostly absorbed
• Then ladled 2 ladlefuls of chicken broth into the rice mixture at a time, until the broth was absorbed, and then adding more ladles
• After about 15 minutes, added the mushroom and garlic mixture to the risotto.  Salt and pepper liberally to taste
• Risotto took about 25 minutes to finish and I pretty much used all the chicken broth.  I like my risotto just a teeny bit al dente and definitely not mushy.  When the risotto is finished, turned off the heat and add 1/3 cup of marscapone cheese, about 1/3 cup of grated parmigiano reggiano, and sprinkled on some minced chives.  Also added a little truffle salt for extra flavor

The risotto was delicious: rich, creamy and lots of earthy mushroom flavor and just a hint of truffle.  It was a nice and comforting fall dish.  We had it alongside a simple arugula, grilled zucchini salad with almonds and dried cranberries and some heirloom tomatoes with burrata and basil as light and fresh accompaniments to the heavier risotto.