The sun is starting to hide behind the clouds and autumnal weather are on the way here in France. If you’re out for a refreshing walk in the forest, you might just stumble across some chanterelle mushrooms to cook up a storm with. We recommend an Italian wine to celebrate a classic recipe from the bel paese.
Autumn singles the start of mushroom season and one of the first to appear are girolle mushrooms, called chanterelle mushrooms in some countries. You’ll know when they are in season as they will appear on menus up and down the country and grace market stalls. Being the foodies that we are, and you know us, we love a good wine pairing too, we’ve transcribed our favourite chanterelle mushroom risotto recipe for you and added wines to serve alongside it below.
Girolle mushroom risotto recipe
Serves 4 people
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
- 250g arborio rice
- 200g chanterelle mushrooms
- 3 shallots
- 1 glass of dry, white wine
- 4-5 cups of stock
- 1 bay leaf
- 50g butter (used twice in the recipe, each time requiring 25g)
- 500ml crème fraiche
- 1 spoonful of olive oil
- Salt, pepper
Method
Peel the mushrooms by removing the bottom (where it was cut). Take off any damaged parts. Cut the larger mushrooms into four and keep the smaller ones whole. Peel the shallots and chop them very finely.
In a large frying pan, sauté the mushrooms in olive oil until they sweat their water. Add salt and pepper. Pour into a bowl and put to one side.
In the same pan (no need to rinse or wipe), heat 25 grams of butter until it foams and sweat the chopped shallots. Add the rice, covering it in the butter, until it becomes translucent.
Add the white wine, stirring all the time. Let it reduce until almost dry. Add salt and pepper. Add the bay leaf. Pour in one glass of stock until almost dry.
As soon as the first glass of stock has reduced, add another until this portion is absorbed, too. Repeat this until the rice is cooked, though it should remain a bit al dente. Once cooked, the rice should have doubled in size.
Add the mushrooms to the rice to reheat them. Remove from the heat, adding the crème fraîche and another 25g butter. Bind together. Taste for seasoning and alter if necessary. Serve immediately with a dusting of parmesan.
Tips:
Don’t stop stirring; this is the main difficulty with risotto. It is fine to be made in advance, just undercook it slightly and finish at the last minute.
Every kind of rice cooks slightly differently, so it might not be necessary to use all the liquid stated in the recipe.
The key to success with this recipe is tasting it regularly! Pour yourself a glass, and with the other hand, don’t stop strirring…
Recommended wine pairings
As this is an Italian recipe, we thought we’d stay in the same country when looking for wine to serve along side the risotto. The aim will be to find something that complements the mushroom’s flavour without overpowering the creaming risotto. Possible options include a medium bodied Pinot Grigio whose subtle fruitiness will contrast with earthy mushrooms and a Barbera d’Alba with bright acidity and soft tannins. Other possible wine pairings are an Italian Chardonnay (lightly oaked is best to match the creamy risotto), Barolo, Barbaresco and Montepulciano. The key to these pairings is not choosing a wine that is highly oaked or has a lot of tannins as this will likely overpower the mushrooms.
Buon appetito!
