½ head of celery, finely chopped (discard any tough outer sticks)
Maldon sea salt and black pepper
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
400g risotto rice
100ml dry white vermouth or dry white wine
70g butter
255g mushrooms (one type or a mixture), sliced thinly
small handful of thyme, picked and chopped
salt and pepper
1 handful of parsley, roughly chopped
1 pinch of chilli powder
Method
First cook the mushrooms: Don’t cook them all at once – do in 2 or 3 batches. In a very hot pan heat 1 tbsp olive oil and add the mushrooms and thyme. Cook for about 1 min, toss them, then add the garlic and a pinch of salt. Cook for another couple of minutes and then taste – if they are nicely cooked add some parsley, a very small pinch of chilli powder and a squeeze of lemon juice. Toss again, taste again – by now they should be pretty much perfect. Put aside.
At the same time, heat the stock. Then in a separate pan heat the olive oil, add the shallot or onion, celery and a pinch of salt, and sweat the vegetables for about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and after another 2 minutes, when the vegetables have softened, add the rice. Now add the cooked Pancetta and rosemary. Now turn up the heat.
While stirring slowly, continuously, you are beginning to fry the rice. You don’t want any colour at this point (so if the temperature seems too high, turn it down). You must keep the rice moving. After 2 or 3 minutes, it will begin to look translucent. Add the vermouth or wine, keeping on stirring as it hits the pan.
Once the vermouth or wine seems to have cooked into the rice, add your first ladle of stock and a pinch of salt. Add the mushrooms from stage 1. Turn down the heat to a highish simmer. Keep adding ladlefuls of stock, stirring and allowing each ladleful to be absorbed before adding the next. This will take about 15 minutes. Taste the rice – is it cooked? Carry on adding stock until the rice is soft but with a slight bite to it. Check seasoning.
Remove from the heat and add the butter, the Parmesan. You may wish to save a little Parmesan to go on the top. Stir gently and eat as soon as possible whilst it retains its moist texture.
Serve it on its own or with a crisp green salad and a hunk of crusty bread.