Mushroom Orzotto with Truffle Oil

OMG - I am in love with this dish. I got the inspiration from Gusto 101 on King St. West. See my PLACES page to see more about this place. But I love love love their Mafalde ai Funghi "Mushroom Pasta" in Truffle sauce. 

I absolutely needed to try an remake the flavour of mushroom in creamy sauce with a hint of truffle. And I think I nailed it!! If payday isn't for a while and you don't want to splurge on the Gusto dish, this is a good dish to satisfy you cravings.

You can totally use your own variation of mushrooms. I just chose these because I like these.

I wanted to make this into a risotto at first but then I realized I didn't want to spend all day trying to get the perfect risotto consistency. Using Orzo pasta works just as fine in almost half the time!

Serves 6 to 8 people

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Extra virgin olive oil

1 shallot (minced)

2 cloves of garlic (minced)

1 pack of dry orzo

100g each of mushroom (roughly chopped) - king oyster, mini portabello, shitake.. definitely recommend trying porcini mushrooms, even the dry ones.

1 carton of no salt chicken broth or veggie stock

1 cup parmigiano reggiano

1 cup pecorino 

1 tsp fresh thyme

1 tbsp butter

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Heat up your stock to a simmer.. don't boil it. Just leave it and move on to your orzotto
• In a large skillet, heat up some extra virgin olive oil and saute your minced shallots and garlic until translucent
• Toss in mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. This is to release some of the moisture from the mushrooms
• When your mushrooms look tender, toss in the orzo (dry no need to cook before hand)
• You want to toast the orzo a bit before adding your liquid
• One ladle at a time, scoop in the hot chicken stock (you want it hot because you want to keep the heat consistent when you're cooking) on to the orzotto. Mixing it in between. 
• You want to get a creamy consistency, so it's better to add little stock at a time then too much. Easier to add then take away!
• You'll end up using the entire carton of stock. At this point, check your orzotto to see if it's al dente. 
• Remove from the heat and drop in your butter. 
• Add in your cheese and mix

Garnish with more cheese with serving and drizzle in some TRUFFLE OIL!! The brand I use is this below. It's a finishing oil, so a little goes a very long way!

I really hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did.