Mushroom and Red Wine Risotto

I was all about mushrooms this past weekend. On Friday, I finally made it to Erba, a modern little Italian restaurant that’s been in the neighborhood for a while now. I’ve been meaning to try it since it opened, and thanks to a cool gift certificate deal, I finally did.

I started with a salad of baby beets roasted in sea salt with hazelnut-crusted goat cheese, greens and hazelnut oil vinaigrette. Yum, yum. For my entree, I had a mushroom risotto with red wine syrup, which was also quite good.

I stayed in and cooked for the rest of the weekend, but I definitely had mushrooms on the brain. I stocked up on a big bunch of creminis, putting some on homemade pizza and cooking some up with a batch of Rancho Gordo Scarlett Runner beans. It was my first taste of Rancho Gordo beans, so I prepared them simply, as recommended, with the mushrooms, lots of roasted garlic and a few dashes of hot sauce. I have to say, they totally live up to all the hype – so flavorful.

Last night, before settling in to say goodbye to The Wire, I made some risotto of my own. It’s a little-less-rich, vegan version of a classic dish. This is pretty much how I’m eating these days – I think I’m done with meat, but eating a vegan diet all the time just isn’t for me. I have, however, cut a lot of dairy out of my diet and I feel healthier for it. When I cook at home, I usually chose not to use dairy. It’s become a bit of a treat that I have a couple of times a week, usually when I eat out or I’m cooking a special meal. I’ve decided that a life with no cheese whatsoever, for me, is simply not worth living.

This risotto, however, doesn’t suffer at all from the lack of cheese, in my opinion. Here’s the recipe:

• 1 pound crimini mushrooms
• 2 shallots, minced
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1 teaspoon dried sage, crumbled
• 4 Tablespoons Earth Balance margarine (or butter)
• 2 cubs Arborio rice
• 1 1/2 cups dry red wine
• 5 cups vegetable stock
• handful of basil or parsley
• salt and pepper

Quarter 2/3 of mushrooms and set aside. Finely chop remaining mushrooms.

Heat 2 tablespoons of margarine and add quartered mushrooms, salt and pepper. Cook until mushrooms are browned and somewhat softened. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a saucepan, bring vegetable stock to low simmer.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons of margarine in a heavy pot. Add shallots, finely chopped mushrooms, rosemary, sage, salt and pepper. Cook until shallots and mushrooms soften, about 5 minutes. Stir in rice and cook for 1 minute. Add 1 cup of wine and cook until absorbed. Repeat with remaining 1/2 cup of wine. Add 1 cup of stock and cook until absorbed. Repeat with remaining stock, 1/2 cup at a time, until rice is just slightly al dente. (You may not use all the stock.)

When the risotto is nearly finished, reheat the quartered mushrooms. Serve on top of risotto and garnish with basil or parsley.

Enjoy.

*Note: If you have some dried porcinis, that would be a great addition to this dish, along with the water used to rehydrate them in place of some of the stock.