Best Risotto Recipe Ever

I've been reading Shauna Niequist's "Bread and Wine" this week (not done yet!), and as I suspected I am loving the book.  This is the first book of hers that I've read, and it is dense with descriptive language in a way that just immerses me in her stories.  Those stories are real and raw and true and honest and I feel like we've become best friends.  Of course, we've never met and she doesn't know I exist, so really we're not friends at all.  But this book is about what it is to share community and food and how the two are so intertwined.  And because it's Shauna, there are recipes scattered throughout.  My experience is that Shauna's recipes are always worth trying, even though there are no pictures.  Ordinarily that would be enough to stop me from trying a recipe, but sometimes experience trumps little things like that.

Last night I tried her recipe for risotto.  I'm telling you here and now, not only is this Shauna's "go to" risotto recipe, but it will be ours, now, as well.  You will find the recipe, or rather general instructions, here.  You'll need to scroll down to the Mushroom Risotto.  Last night I roasted cubes of pumpkin sprinkled with thyme, and some mushrooms cut into chunks.  It was perfect.  Full of flavour, oozy, rich, just the right amount of salty without adding any, because of the stock powder and the parmesan cheese.

And here's my tip for those of you who fear risotto because of all the stirring:  After you've added the cup of wine and the first cup of stock dump in all the liquid at once.

I know, I know.  The Italians are shouting things at their screens right now, but it just works.  Whenever I've made risotto with all the stirring, one cup of liquid at a time, it takes forever and I'm never satisfied the rice is cooked.  I don't like it crunchy.  Sorry.  I'm a rice and pasta neanderthal.  I like them both well cooked.  So I do the first two cups of liquid how you should and then I add all the rest of the liquid at once.  And then I cover the pot to cook.  I stir the rice every now and then, and when the liquid is nearly all absorbed, but not quite, I take it off the heat, add a big knob of butter and the cheese and....YUM.  Perfect for this neanderthal.