I cook risotto with black truffles

Risotto with black truffles is a very simple and a royal dish at the same time where plain risotto marries perfectly with intensive flavour of truffles. It is also very easy to make. In fact, my biggest work was to go to “Maison de la Truffe” (19 places de la Madeleine, Paris) and to buy a black truffle as the trattoria close to me haven’t received these “treasures” yet :).

For the sake of precision, I used the “Risotto al Tartufo” recipe by an Italian food writer Ursula Ferrigno from her book ” Risotto. 30 simple delicious vegetarian recipes from an Italian kitchen”. ( I highly recommend this book, it’s excellent.)

Here is what you will need for 2 people:

(Ferrigno’s recipe is for 4, so I just roughly divided all the ingredients in two)

• 450 ml vegetable stock  -I used more than that -around 500 ml.
• 1 desserts spoon of olive oil
• 25 g unsalted butter
• 4 finely chopped shallots
• 150 g risotto rice (vialone nano,carnaroli or arborio) – I used carnaroli rice.
• 40 ml white wine (less than half a glass)
• 50g freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon mascarpone cheese
• 1 tablespoon truffle oil
• coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 black truffle ( about 35 g) (The author doesn’t say how big the truffle has to be, but the 35 g truffle i bought was perfect for two people)

Here are the main steps of cooking this hearty dish (as in the Ursula Ferrigno’s book)

1. Heat the butter and oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add
the shallots and cook 1-2 minutes, until softened but not browned.

2.Add the rice and stir until the grains are well coated and glistening about 1 minute. Pour in the wine and stir until it has been completely absorbed.

3.Add 1 ladle of hot stock and simmer, stirring until it has been absorbed. Continue to add the stock at intervals and cook as before, until the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is tender but al dente, about 18-20 minutes. Reserve the last ladle of stock.

4. Add the reserved stock, Parmesan, cream, truffle oil, parsley, salt and pepper. Mix well. remove from the heat, cover and let rest for 2 minutes.

5.Spoon into warmed bowls and shave paper-thin slices of truffle over the top. Serve immediately.