A classic Marco Pierre White risotto simple, rustic, and full of depth. In this video, the legendary chef shows how to make a wild mushroom risotto that balances creaminess, texture, and pure mushroom flavor.
Using just 200 g (about 7 oz) wild mushrooms, 160 g (about ¾ cup) Arborio rice, 500 ml (about 2 cups) chicken stock, a splash of white wine (≈ ¼ cup), olive oil (1–2 Tbsp), and ⅛ onion (finely chopped), Marco builds a dish that proves great cooking is about restraint and understanding ingredients.
He shows why onions should be sweated without color, stock added gradually, and rice stirred constantly so every grain cooks evenly. You’ll also learn why thyme pairs perfectly with mushrooms, how to use truffle oil wisely, and what al dente really means translucent grains with a small white “bead” inside.
From everyday supermarket mushrooms to refined restaurant flavor, this risotto demonstrates how technique transforms simplicity. Serve it as a main course or beside roast chicken, guinea fowl, or pheasant a timeless recipe bridging Italian tradition and French precision.
Ingredients
• 200 g (7 oz) wild mushrooms, roughly chopped
• 160 g (¾ cup) Arborio or Carnaroli rice
• 500 ml (2 cups) hot chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
• ⅛ medium onion, finely diced
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• ¼ cup dry white wine
• 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves (or rosemary, sage, or parsley)
• Optional – ½ tsp truffle oil for finishing
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Method
1️⃣ Sweat onion in olive oil over low heat until translucent, no color.
2️⃣ Add rice; stir 1–2 minutes until lightly toasted.
3️⃣ Deglaze with white wine; reduce.
4️⃣ Add hot stock a ladle at a time, stirring constantly until absorbed before adding more.
5️⃣ Sauté mushrooms separately until water releases and evaporates; season and add herbs.
6️⃣ Fold mushrooms into risotto at the end; adjust seasoning.
7️⃣ Optional: finish with a drizzle of truffle oil.
0:00 Intro & Ingredients
1:00 Sweating onion and toasting rice
2:00 Adding stock gradually
3:30 Preparing wild mushrooms
5:00 Flavor boost with herbs and truffle oil
6:30 Perfect al dente texture & finish
8:00 Final thoughts from Marco Pierre White
• Watch next: https://youtu.be/vydl4Naq5VI
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Okay, what we’re going to do now is a risotto of wild mushrooms, 200 gram of wild mushrooms, 160 rice, 550 500 mls of stock, bit of water, olive oil, eighth and onion again. Again, cook it without color. And this time, this time we’re going to use the chicken stock. It’s just a little bit more robust with the mushrooms. You want that little bit more flavor. I used to cook, we used to do um a roast guinea pow or a roast pheasant with the risotto of wild mushrooms or white truffles. So it’s a great it works very well with chicken or with guinea foul white game like a pheasant or a partridge as a risotto my rice first and once again splash of white wine again about 100 s to start with a chicken stock. What we’re going to do here is we’re going to prepare these wild mushrooms which I got from the supermarket. And I don’t want to chop them too fine because I kind of like the shapes of some of them. But something like that just just chop it into three or four. I’d say leave that one in half. It’s again it’s up to yourself. That one into three. Cuz what you want to do is when you fry them, you want them all to cook evenly together. And there seems a lot of mushrooms here, but once they start to cook, they’ll shrink down. They’ll release their water. You could use normal mushrooms, but it wouldn’t be the same. I mean, but if we’re honest, in the new forest, porchinis grow everywhere in the season. October, November time. There’s a lot of them around. Just make sure you pick the right ones. I’d say, you know, 100 mls, 100 mls again, you know, just slowly, you know, there’s no rule, you know, just don’t put all in at once. Just bit by bit and keep on working it. Some say what we should try and do is retain the beauty of the mushroom. Don’t chop them up just for the sake of chopping them up. And also, if you chop them too small, you lose all the texture. That’s may seem like a a tremendous amount of mushrooms, but once they’re cooked down, they’ll the water will release and you you’ll see. I’m going to flavor this rotto with a bit of thyme. Little bit of time just at the end just to give it that little flavor because time and mushroom works very well together. Rosemary would work well, pasta would work well. You what you’ve got. I mean, it depends on the time of year. You know, you could use a bit of sage if you wanted cuz sage and seps work very well. You could use thyme. You could use rosemary. Chibives go well with mushrooms. You taken goes well with mushrooms. Pasta goes well with mushrooms. I wouldn’t use basil because it’s not a natural combination. By stirring it, you’re rotating the rice which allows it to cook evenly. It’s absorbing the stock evenly. It’s cooking evenly. Going to cook a few mushrooms. Little olive oil. If you wanted to go that extra mile, crush some garlic, some finely chopped shellots, sweat them off in with your mushrooms. It’s not necessary. But if you want to go that little bit further, it’s your choice. I mean, if we’re honest, most packets have instructions, you know, 17, 18, 19, 20 minutes, you know, just have a go. It’s not it’s not difficult. A bit of onion. Sweat it off. Once you’re confident of making the autootto, you can make up your own flavors, your own combinations. It’s your choice. If you look at the grains now, they’re still very white. They’re solid. When it’s cooked perfectly, what you will see it has a translucent quality to it with that little white bead in the middle. Use your packet, which it says on the back dep. Yeah. As I said, everyone’s stove different. You know, it’s different. And when you think I took the mushrooms, I chopped them up while I was here. Chop the onion. Everything’s done within 20 minutes. And I think it’s a great meal once a week to give to the children. As you can see how they’ve just collapsed. Yeah. That that the volume is now half and it’ll go down even more. But by cooking your mushrooms, you’re releasing the water. By releasing the water, you’re intensifying the flavor of the mushrooms. And that’s what you’re trying to achieve is that intensifying that flavor. and by using the nor stock. It’s straightforward. Okay. And what I’m going to do just give these mushrooms a little bit of a boost. Again, it’s optional. It’s truffle oil. I’m not the greatest fan in the world of it, but for the domestic kitchen, I don’t think it’s a bad thing. and a little springrig of thyme. Truffle oil is not a bad little thing to have in your cupboard. It just puts that little bit of flavor in the mushrooms and especially in the risotto. And we won’t put the mushrooms in until the very last minute cuz what we don’t want to do is boil the mushrooms. As you can see, it’s coming together very nicely now. I was brought up by my mother to eat risotto aladente but you know mom was Italian you know and I do like my roto alad dente what I regard in pasta as aladenti most people would class as completely raw but the Italians are very different you know and again don’t be dictated to buy a recipe it’s what you like and that’s the key of cooking is cooking for yourself and I was going to keep half the mushrooms comes back purely for presentation. But I’ve decided not to. Just let’s put them all in. Let’s put every ounce of flavor, every drop of flavor back into the risoto because when I get a risoto of mushrooms, I want lots of mushrooms. I want that texture. I want that flavor of the mushrooms. And again, that butterness gives it that richness. It gives it that velvety texture. Okay. Again, you can use vegetable stock. I chose to put all the mushrooms into the risotto to get every drop of flavor which is possible into it. If I was in my restaurant, I’d make a mushroom stock and that would be the foundation of it. We haven’t got the time to do mushroom stock at home. So, we have to make the most of what we’ve got. And we go down the supermarket, we take the mushrooms that they’ve got, we get the rice, the stock, which is a very good stock, and we we do the best what we can do is if you want to start buying porchini mushrooms, then you’re going to be paying a fortune for it. You go to my restaurant in St. James, Luchano, it will cost you 20 for a portion of risotto of porchini. It’ll cost you £75 for a risotto of white mushrooms. And so, you know, it’s what can we do to make something delicious without having to spend a fortune? And this is it.
Dining and Cooking