Truffle risotto

As I promised in the original risotto post the possibilities are endless.  Truffle risotto is one luxurious and indulgent dish, and risotto is one of the best ways to highlight truffles. This recipe was developed by my friends at Truffle Shuffle, and they have a wonderful video of the whole process on their web site. 


serves: 8        difficulty: medium      prep time: 40-50 min


Ingredients

  • 2 large truffles – black or white. I buy mine from Truffle Shuffle (full disclosure, I am in an investor in the company).
  • 2 tsp truffle oil
  • 1/2 yellow onion, finely minced
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 2 tbs butter
  • 1 1/2 cups of Arborio rice.
  • 1 cup white wine
  • 4 quarts chicken stock
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 2 cups of grated Parmigiano Reggiano
  • 1 tsp champagne vinegar

Preparation

Risotto is great to serve at a dinner party but it needs to be finished right before it is served, and it takes about 20 min to cook. So unless you are OK missing half the conversation at your dinner party, it is tough to prepare after your guests have arrived. This recipe includes a trick that I learned from a Jamie Oliver cookbook that allows to prepare the risotto ahead of time and just finish it in 5 min when ready to serve.

Quarter the onion and remove the skin. Finely mince half an onion (and user the rest for something else). The goal is for each piece of onion to be as small or smaller than a grain of rice.

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Heat up the chicken stock to boiling. Keep it at boiling temperature throughout the cooking process. Heat a medium saucepan, and add the olive oil.  Place the minced onions in the pan, and  sweat them until you can’t smell the raw onion flavor anymore.

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Add the rice and stir. Saute the rice and the onions for two minutes being careful to not brown. Add the white wine and cook until almost all of it has evaporated and the mixture is dry. Once the wine is cooked out and you do not smell the alcohol any further add the first ladle of chicken stock .

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Continue lightly stirring with a wooden spoon until you have added a total of 7 ladles of chicken stock. Once all the stock is incorporated, turn off the heat, and stir the risotto to let it cool off.  lightly season with truffle oil and truffle salt. When you taste it, it should be still quite al dente. Stir it every 2 min two more times. Now the risotto is almost ready, and it will take 5 min to finish before serving.

To finish the risotto, grate 2 cups of Pargmigiano Reggiano and whip the cream to medium peaks.

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Finely mince one ounce of truffle so that the pieces are smaller than a grain of rice.

Reheat the risotto and the remaining chicken stock. Add 2 more ladles of heated chicken stock to the risotto and stir. Add all of the minced truffle and the butter.  Turn the heat up so that you quickly incorporate the butter into the risotto without breaking it. Next add the whipped cream and stir until it is fully incorporated.  Taste for preliminary seasoning. Add the grated Parmigiano. Taste the risotto and season with champagne vinegar, salt and truffle oil. When you spoon the risotto onto a plate it should spread for three seconds and then stop and hold its form. The last move is to shave fresh truffles all over the risotto.

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