tried & true: weeknight baked mushroom risotto
I hate it when I have to separate recipes into “weeknight feasible” and “weekend projects” … but it’s a necessary evil at times. One just can’t come home at 5:45pm and sit stirring a pot for 2 hours before dinner is on the table… or rather, I can’t survive the zombie apocalypse that will occur when the starving members of my family attack me at the stove.
When I found this recipe from Donna Hayes over a year ago, I thought it was a fluke. Risotto in the oven, how novel. But then I was craving risotto, and it was a Wednesday night, so I threw it in the oven and gave it a go.
And guess what? It’s as fabulous as it is simple! It still takes a good deal of time in the oven, but there’s barely any prep (cut & brown the mushrooms) and once it’s in the oven you can go and be anywhere else in the house! And, I keep my oil to cook green beans in the last 10 minutes as well… which makes clean-up even easier!
- 2 tsp butter
- 2 T olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 6 oz field mushrooms, sliced
- 6 oz Swiss brown mushrooms, sliced
- 6 oz button mushrooms, quartered
- 1 ½ cup arborio (or risotto) rice
- 4 ½ cups chicken stock
- 1 cup finely grated parmesan
- 1 tsp unsalted butter
- sea salt and cracked black pepper
- Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add the 2 tsp butter, olive oil, garlic and mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms are golden (5 minutes).
- Preheat the oven to 355°F. Place the rice, chicken stock and mushrooms in a 8½ x 12 in (80 fl oz) baking dish and stir to combine.
- Cover the dish tightly with foil and bake for 40 minutes or until most of the stock is absorbed and the rice is al dente.
- Add the parmesan, 1 tsp butter, salt and pepper and stir until the butter is melted. Serve immediately.
