For this wintery hearty dish, I used the Carnaroli Rustico rice from sustainable agriculture by Riso Gallo. This is a semi wholegrain Carnaroli that gives you the versatility of white rice but the rustic flavour of a wholegrains options. It’s pretty safe to say the best of both worlds. Great to use for risotto, but also for arancini, thick soups or salads.

Preparation

Gently sweat the chopped onion in a pan with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, a pinch of salt, a knob of butter. Cook for about 10 minutes on low heat until golden and caramelized. Remove from the heat and keep aside.

Now quickly rinse the mushrooms and chop them finely. Pan fry them on high heat with a drizzle of oil, a crushed garlic clove and a sprig of rosemary. Stir well and after 4/5 minutes, when roasted and golden remove from the heat. Remove the garlic and rosemary.

If using raw chestnuts, rinse well and leave in cold water for a couple of hours. Now make an incision lengthwise along each one of them. Heat a frying pan and dry roast the chestnuts for about 15/20 minutes and medium heat. Cover with the lid for the first 5/10 minutes to allow the steam to cook through the chestnuts and to softened the skin. Toss them often and when ‘burned’ all around remove from the heat. Place the hot chestnuts into a tea towel and crush them by hand to further loosen up the skin. Let them steam 5 more minutes in the towel then peel carefully while still hot (peeling cold chestnuts is much more tedious).

Brown a couple of knobs of butter in a pan and add the peeled chestnuts. Stir and toss for a couple of minutes then add 1 chopped sprig of rosemary. Stir well and remove from the heat. Keep the buttery chestnuts on the side.

For the risotto

In a large casserole, start to dry toast the rice on a low heat with a pinch of salt, without adding oil or fat. In this way, the heat reaches the core of each rice grain resulting in a more uniform al dente rice. Keep stirring the rice, so the rice does not catch on the bottom of the pan or burn. When the rice is very hot, pour half a glass of the wine in. Let the alcohol evaporate, set the cooking time to 16 minutes and add the simmering stock a ladle at a time, little by little. Stir the rice occasionally, and make sure the rice is always covered with stock. Keep cooking and do not stir with too much energy as it could break the rice grains.

When halfway through the cooking, add the cooked onion. Once the time is up, add the cooked mushrooms and taste the risotto. If you’re happy with the texture remove it from the heat, if you want the rice a little bit softer, cook for another minute.

This step is called “mantecatura” to make the risotto creamier increasing its natural ooziness with the right gesture and movements.

Add the grated Grana Padano cheese and butter left to the rice. Stir to incorporate extra air until the risotto is nice and creamy. At this stage I like to add an extra splash of wine and if the risotto dries up, you can still add a little bit of hot stock. Season to taste.

Plate the hot risotto straight away, top with the buttery chestnuts and sprinkle a little bit more chopped rosemary.

Enjoy straight away.