This month’s selection for the Cook the Books reading/cooking club is Undercooked: How I Let Food Become My Life Navigator and How Maybe That's a Dumb Way to Live
by Dan Ahdoot, inspired by his obsession with food. In a chapter devoted to his travels in Italy he writes about a car expedition through northern Italy “where prosciutto and parmesan cheese were invented. Man were we stoked. We replayed the episode of Chef’s Table where Massimo Bottura, a charismatic chef, tells the story of how he single-handedly helped rebuild the economy of Emilia-Romagna by creating a widely circulated recipe for Parmigiano risotto that required people to buy more Parmesan cheese. Touching but when you think of it, how hard was this situation? Help! We just had an earthquake and instead of sending aid like firefighters, no, the answer is just buy more of the most delicious cheese ever invented. Problem solved!”
I was inspired by this story having been to Northern Italy several times and had the opportunity to taste the real thing in trattorias, not the US adaptations. Enjoying a true Italian master dish in its home environment was life changing…. I chose to make a variation on the dish using mushrooms and peas as key ingredients but believe me there are tons of great ingredient combinations. Yum! A really great mid-winter dish.
Our host for this cycle of Cook the Books is Debra of Eliot's Eats. She says that there’s a lot of humor in this book and I agree. We thank her for organizing what surely will be an inspiring collection of recipes.
Mushroom Risotto with Peas
Ingredients
6-7 cups chicken or vegetable broth as needed
Salt & freshly ground pepper
2 tbs olive oil
½ cup finely chopped onion or 2 shallots minced
¾ - 1 lb fresh mushroom cut into small pieces
2 garlic cloves minced
2 tsp fresh chopped sage
1 ½ cup arborio rice
½ cup dry white wine or chicken stock
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Preparation:
Bring stock or broth to a simmer in a saucepan. Make sure stock is well seasoned and keep warm on stove.
Heat oil in a wide, heavy, nonstick skillet. Add onions and cook till tender, about 3-5 minutes
Turn up heat and add mushroom, cooking till they begin to sweat, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and sage, cooking about 30 seconds. Season with salt & pepper and continue to cook till mushrooms are soft.
Add rice and stir till coated. Add wine or stock and cook while stirring until liquid is no longer visible in the pan. Stir in enough stock to cover the rice. Allow the stock to bubble slowly. Cook, continuing to stir till stock is just about absorbed. Add another ladle or two of stock and continue cooking, stirring often and adding more stock when rice looks like it’s getting dry, about 15 minutes. Add peas and continue adding stock & stirring for another 10 minutes. Rice should become tender but al dente. Add another final ladle of stock and stir in parmesan. Continue stirring but remove from heat. Serve in soup bowls.
