Instant Pot Risotto

Corona Kitchen, Week 7.

Another week, another kitchen experiment! On my never-ending quest to justify owning an Instant Pot, I decided to give this recipe for risotto a try. Actually, once I saw Luisa Weiss of Wednesday Chef making Instant Pot risotto on her Insta-story, I became obsessed with the concept and ecstatic when arborio rice was finally in stock and arrived with my second Instacart delivery. Yes, I used the word “ecstatic” when describing an item in my grocery cart. This is what seven weeks of stay-at-home orders will do to you!

As did Luisa, I riffed off the original recipe. Mushroom Risotta is my absolute fave, so I started with that. I happened to have two large portabellas in my fridge so I sliced those up with a whole shallot. More shallot, more mushrooms next time–could you ever have enough? I think not. I added a minimal amount of cheese at the end. I would start with that, taste and add more according to your preference and how rich you want the resulting dish to be. Richer the better, unless you are trying to keep the Corona15 (weight gain) at bay.

And I think that’s it. If you don’t have an Instant Pot, maybe this post will inspire you to make risotto the old fashioned way. I, for one, will keep trying variations of this recipe until my box of arborio runs empty because Gary has shared that risotto once a week would be alright (read: preferred) by him. Enjoy!

Mushroom Risotto

Instant Pot Risotto

Equipment

  • Instant Pot

Ingredients

  • 2 Tbls unslated butter
  • 1 large shallot minced
  • 8 oz sliced mushrooms or more!
  • 2 c aborio rice
  • 1/2 c white wine
  • 2 c chicken or vegetable broth heated
  • 1/2 c grated Parmesan (or any cheese you like) plus more, to taste
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • a knob or butter or swirl of olive oil garnish, optional

Instructions

  • Set the Instant Pot to the "saute" function and heat butter until melted.
  • Add shallot and stir until coated and softened slightly. Add mushrooms and continue to saute until reached desited doneness. A couple of minutes total here.
  • Add the arborio rice and saute until slightly toasted (you may notice that the grains of rice become somewhat translucent with an opague center). Just be sure not to cook the rice beyond slightly toasted, about 3 minutes.
  • Turn off the saute function and add the white wine. It will sizzle and reduce almost immediately. Scrape the pot of any stuck bits. Add the warmed broth (it's important that the broth is warm) and set for 5 minutes on high pressure. It will take the pressure cooker about 3 minutes to come to pressure.
  • Once the cooking time is up, do the manual quick release of pressure. When done, carefully open lid and remove the insert pot with oven mitts to stop the cooking. Add 1/2 c of cheese. Taste. Add salt, pepper and more cheese, if desired.
  • Serve immediately, as is, or with an extra pat of butter or swirl of olive oil.