Recipes
Wild Mushroom Risotto
By Adam Pawlak
Adam Pawlak
Sharing a kitchen with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay – as he did on season 19 of the reality cooking show “Hell’s Kitchen” – will forever define Adam Pawlak’s cooking career. In the Milwaukee restaurant scene, Pawlak is known for scratch-made pasta and classic sauces like Bolognese. He’s a purist when it comes to cooking those classics, which is what brings us to Italian risotto. “It's a dish that can be so amazing but so simple. And it's really just a rice dish, if you think about it,” he says. Because it’s so simple, the quality of the ingredients is important. You can switch up your add-ins – here, it’s wild mushrooms – but when it comes to cooking it, there are cardinal rules. The first is a wooden spoon for stirring, and you’re going to be doing a lot of stirring. “I always use it to move things around. You always want to use it to get the rice kernels off the side of the pan, too,” he says. Second, start with a white onion, the “foundation of a good risotto,” he says. “You never brown it. You cook it until it’s just translucent.” And the texture of the finished risotto is key – “if you can scoop it with a spoon and it sits on top of itself, that’s not risotto. That’s just cooked rice.” When you serve it, the risotto should “lay flat on the plate. It should not clump up,” he says. If you tilt the plate, the risotto should slowly spread out like sauce. The lesson: Perfect risotto is achievable if you follow the rules.
Ingredients
Serves 2 to 4
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 pounds wild mushrooms (oysters, shiitakes, creminis)
1 white onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
16 ounces arborio rice
1 cup dry white wine
5 quarts chicken stock
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 ounces minced chives
8 ounces unsalted butter
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated Salt and pepper to taste
Extra grated parmesan, as desired, for plating
Chives, minced, as desired
Instructions
Subhead to go here once it is written
In a Dutch oven over medium to high heat, heat the extra-virgin olive oil. Add the mushrooms and cook them down until golden brown. Add the onions and cook until translucent and sweated out. Add the garlic and cook until you can smell it blooming. Add the arborio rice to toast and bloom (about five minutes). Add the white wine and reduce the wine until all of the alcohol is cooked out. Begin to add stock and stir the rice mixture slowly. Add fresh thyme. Continue adding stock until the rice is tender and soft. Add the butter and cheese, and continue stirring the rice mixture until it is creamy and consistent throughout. Add salt and pepper to taste. To serve, plate the risotto and garnish with more cheese and minced chives.
Bio
Milwaukee native Adam Pawlak has worked in restaurants ranging from Black Sheep to Sebastian’s in Caledonia. His specialty is high-end Italian cuisine with French influences. Pawlak worked through the ranks in the restaurant industry before opening his popular fast casual pasta bar, Egg & Flour. His name went national in 2021 when he competed on season 19 of the TV cooking show “Hell’s Kitchen.”
Adam Palak
Egg & Flour Pasta Bar
Adam Palak
Egg & Flour Pasta Bar