I love love love risotto, but sometimes I like to leave the stirring to the experts (or to John – what are husbands for, after all?). For other times, I present this game-changing recipe where you barely stir at all and still get a creamy, cheesy dish and the shroomies of your dreams. Barley is like rice’s nuttier cousin you never realized you loved and probably have around the house from some old winter soup recipe.
Ingredients
For the Risotto:
- 4 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 2 large or 4 small dried porcini mushrooms
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup finely chopped shallots
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 1 1/3 cups pearl barley
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ½ cup finely grated Parmigiano cheese, plus more for garnish
For the Roasted Mushrooms:
- 1½ pounds mixed mushrooms (oyster, hon shimeji, shiitake, baby bella), trimmed and sliced (about 5 cups)
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme, plus more for garnish
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Directions
1
Make the Risotto:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Arrange one rack in the lower third of the oven and one in the center (one will hold the roasting mushrooms and one will hold your risotto saucepan).
Bring the broth to a boil in a small saucepan, throw in the porcinis, cover, turn off the heat, and let it sit while you prep everything else
2
Heat the butter and olive oil in a medium, oven-safe saucepan (make sure it has a tight-fitting lid) over medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic and cook, stirring, until translucent and fragrant, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the barley and thyme sprigs and cook, stirring, until the barley is shiny and coated in oil, 2 to 3 minutes. Strain the broth into the barley (it will sputter a bit), then finely chop the porcinis, add them to the barley and broth along with the salt and pepper. Cover while still boiling and transfer to the middle oven rack. Bake until the barley has absorbed the liquid and is tender, 40 to 45 minutes.
3
Make the Roasted Mushrooms:
During the last 30 minutes of the risotto cooking, toss the sliced mushrooms with the olive oil, thyme, salt, and pepper. Arrange them in an even layer on a rimmed baking sheet, slide the sheet into the bottom rack, and roast until the mushrooms wilt and some of the edges char, 30 minutes. Remove from the oven.
4
Carefully remove the risotto from the oven, uncover the pot, and discard the thyme sprigs. Stir in the Parm and season with more salt and pepper if needed. Divide among bowls, then spoon the roasted mushrooms on top of the bowls. Garnish with more cheese, thyme, and a drizzle of olive oi
Simple to create and Delicious. I didn’t have any dried porcini mushrooms and this month I’m not going to find even that in the grocery store so I added a few extra mushrooms to the barley pan, had to use regular sweet onion in place of the shallots but the depth of flavor was not comprised. Made a full recipe and froze half, can’t wait to eat the leftovers
This bus the first ever Cravings recipe I’ve made and my first ever barley risotto and it was amazing! Thanks for the deliciousness Chrissy 🙂
I’m not sure if it was sacrilege, but I ate this with hot sauce. It was phenomenal.