One-Pot Mushroom Risotto That Tastes Straight from Italy

Ingredient Notes

The mushroom risotto is a delicious vegetarian one-pot dish prepared with 3 different mushroom varieties.

For this classic Italian rice meal , I chose to give you more freedom regarding the mushroom selection.

A classic mushroom risotto will contain porcini mushrooms. Sometimes crimini/portobello mushrooms. Mixed mushrooms can add a lot of character to the homemade risotto dish.

In my easy mushroom risotto, I used what I had at home because I tend to prepare this dish all year round. Yet, you will be able to get the best selection of mushroom varieties during fall. This is because mushrooms are in season in autumn.

In this easy mushroom risotto, I decided to go with regular button mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, and Japanese shiitake mushrooms.

You can use fresh or dehydrated mushrooms for this risotto recipe.

I love my risotto with a good white wine. So, besides sipping on a glass of wine while preparing the dish, I add some to my risotto as well.

The seasoning is important as well because it needs to work with the other ingredients. I add thyme, rosemary, and garlic because these ingredients always work great with rice and mushrooms.

For the broth, you can use vegetable broth if you want it to be a vegetarian dinner meal. Otherwise, I have to confess, I do enjoy my mushroom risotto with a chicken broth, as it works well with the other ingredients.

Do not exchange the broth with water in this risotto recipe, as this would break the flavor profile completely.

For the rice, I simply use commonly available Arborio short grain rice.

The cheese used here is a classic Parmigiano Reggiano (proper Parmesan) cheese, which turns the mixed mushroom risotto into a creamy, well-flavored delight.

Choice of Mushrooms to Prepare the Risotto

• Shiitake
• Chanterelle
• Champignon de Paris/ common white button mushroom
• Crimini/ Portobello
• Oyster
• Porcini
• King Trumpet

Process Tips

The risotto preparation is super easy, but you do need to look out for a few major preparation steps.

The easy mushroom risotto is a one-pot meal.

The onions, garlic, and mushrooms are cooked in butter before the rice is added.

The short grain rice is stir-fried so that the rice flavors come out. Everything is seasoned with salt and black pepper.

After that, the white wine is poured into the cooking mixture.

Wine does flavor the dish, so I wouldn't substitute this ingredient (even if kids are eating the dish).

Now pour in one ladle of broth and mix while the risotto is cooking.

Then it's time to season with dried (or fresh) thyme and rosemary before pouring in another ladle of broth.

The broth needs to be poured in, one ladle at a time, while the risotto rice is cooking.

Once the broth has dissolved, another ladle of broth is poured in.

The process is repeated until all the broth has been used up or once the rice has cooked through.

In the end, grated Parmigiano Reggiano (the proper Italian style Parmesan) is mixed into the mixed mushroom risotto.