River Cottage risoniotto and a few words on mushrooms

 

    I hadn't come across risoni or orzo - a tiny rice-shaped pasta - until I saw it specified in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipe for mushroom risoniotto in his new book River Cottage Veg Every Day, and being someone who finds mushrooms irresistible (e.g. Monty's mushroom savoury) here was a recipe I couldn't pass by and an ingredient I wanted to try.

    Quicker than a risotto and without the need for constant stirring, this dish is as simple as it is satisfying, the little 'grains' of pasta providing the comfort factor and the mushrooms (cooked with garlic, thyme, balsamic vinegar, white wine and cream) that wonderful earthy flavour.

 

    A few words on mushrooms from Niki Segnit's informative and entertaining The Flavour Thesaurus:

"Morel caps look like homemade beanies, knitted with big needles after one too many parsnip wines."

"Mushroom and onion: warm, soft and as inviting as a pair of sheepskin slippers."

"Mushroom and walnut: both ligneous. Mushrooms tend to the sort of heavy, damp woodiness you greedily inhale on a forest walk in autumn; walnuts to the warmly sweet, dry fragrance of timber in a DIY store."

"Mushroom and butternut squash: toadstools and pumpkins. A fairytale combination."

    Hungry?