The chanterelles season is back, finally 🙂

I love them, and I love to cook them very simply, indeed my favorite recipe is with pasta (click HERE to say the previous recipe) and almost nothing else added. But also in the risotto they are great, and in this case I decided to add also a cheese like the Asiago cheese, it adds creaminess but it doesn’t have a flavor which is too strong, so it doesn’t cover the chanterelles flavor.

Let’s see!

INGREDIENTS (4 people):

• 320-340 g rice (Carnaroli or Vialone Nano types, but in this case I used a less common type: Baldo)
• 400 g chanterelles (the clean weight)
• 150 g Asiago DOP
• 1,2/1,5 liters of vegetable stock
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 glass of dry white wine
• 60 g butter
• salt

1. First of all carefully clean the chanterelles, remove the ground carefully with a brush and a wet towel, but as for the porcini DON’T wash them, otherwise you’ll lose a lot of their flavor. Cut and throw away the possible parts with maggots.
2. If you didn’t prepare it already, prepare also the vegetable stock (carrot, onion, celery, bay leaves, pepper, salt, etc.).
3. Take a pan and heat about half of butter, then add the garlic. When the garlic gets some color remove it and add the chanterelles (cut in pieces of about the same size) and cook them for about 8-10 minutes, season with salt and then switch off and keep them aside for later. In the same pan add now another piece of butter and cook the onion, chopped very small, until soft.
4. Now take a pot and heat it, then add the rice and toast it for few minutes, 2-3 minutes, keep it moved with a wooden spoon (or simply make it “jump” by moving the pot) every 20-30 seconds and when you cannot touch the rice with your hands and you see that the grains have become a bit shiny/transparent then it’s toasted. This is the moment to add the white wine, keep the heat higher until the wine has reduced. From now count the time to cook the rice (read it on its package).
5. Then add some ladles of vegetable stock, enough to cover the rice. Keep adding stock when it’s needed. Add also the onion.
6. After 10 minutes add the chanterelles. Stir gently with a wooden spoon.
7. When the rice is ready switch off, add the remaining butter, the Asiago cheese cut into small cubes and the finely chopped parsley. Wait a couple of minutes covered, then stir.
8. Serve it 🙂

Here a similar version even better: with mountain butter (and a very good mountain cheese, the “Case di Viso” from Andrea Bezzi):

And here another interesting similar version, with black chanterelles (Craterellus cornucopioides), mountain butter and Bagoss cheese (in lower amount, since it’s a more intense cheese):