Go Back
+ servings
Print Recipe
No ratings yet

Risotto with pancetta, mushrooms and zucchini

Creamy risotto with lots of nutritious vegetables and pancetta for a salty hit, this is a family favorite dinner for young and old.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time40 minutes
Total Time50 minutes
Course: Appetizer, Main Course
Cuisine: Italian
Keyword: risotto, risotto with pancetta, mushrooms and zucchini
Servings: 6
Calories: 445kcal

Ingredients

  • 2 oz unsalted butter or 2tbs olive oil
  • 1 onion small, peeled and finely chopped
  • 4 oz pancetta or bacon, chopped
  • 1 lb button mushrooms thickly sliced
  • 1 ½ cups Arborio rice
  • 2 ½ cups chicken stock plus up to ½ cup extra for loosening the finished risotto
  • ½ cup dry white wine brought to the boil and simmered for 2 minutes to evaporate alcohol (increase the stock quantity if you don’t want to use wine)
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 1 zucchini medium, halved lengthways and sliced into 1/4"/5mm semi-circles
  • 2 oz parmesan cheese grated

Instructions

  • Set your oven to 450⁰F/220⁰C, combination steam. If your oven has variable steam settings, use 30% steam. If not, don't worry! Just set to combi steam at the correct temperature and the oven will work out the humidity for you.
  • If you’re doing the browned butter, put the butter in a large shallow cooking tray and put it in the oven for 2-3 minutes, until it melts and the solids begin turning brown (watch it closely, the line between browned and blackened is a fine one!).
  • Add the onion, mushrooms and pancetta to the tray, give it a quick stir to coat everything in the butter and return to the oven for 15 minutes, stirring after 10 minutes so it cooks evenly. There should be a little mushroom-y liquid left in the tray but if it looks soupy give it another few minutes.
  • Remove the vegetables and pancetta from the tray (for minimal dishes use, I just scrape it all into a bowl over the top of the zucchini, which I slice while the other things cook). You can do all of the above up to a day before you make the risotto if you like, just cover and store in the fridge until you’re ready to use it.
  • Change your oven temperature to 212⁰F/100⁰C, steam setting (100% humidity). If you're going straight from a hot oven for the vegetables, I'd recommend turning the whole thing off and leaving the door open for 5 minutes, then choosing the steam setting once it's cooled a bit.
  • Put the rice, stock and wine into the same tray you cooked the vegetables/pancetta in and season well with pepper. Steam for 17 minutes then add the veg/pancetta and the zucchini and return to the oven for a further 4-5 minutes, until the rice is tender but with a little bite in the centre.
  • Stir in the cheese and a little more stock or water if the risotto is too dry, then let it sit for 1 minute before serving with extra pepper.

Notes

  1. For simplicity’s sake, if you don’t want to simmer wine to put in with the stock just leave it out altogether. Do not be tempted to just add uncooked wine as it won’t ‘cook out’ properly in the steam oven and your risotto will taste alcoholic (not in a good way). The dish won’t be as complex in flavour without it, but you’ll probably be the only one to notice. And if you have kids they might prefer it.
  2. You can loosen the finished rice with some extra stock or water (I do), just make sure you heat it before stirring in at the end of cooking or you’ll have sludgy, cold risotto before you can get it into your bowls.
  3. If you want to pan fry your onions, mushrooms and pancetta that’s just fine but I found it easier to cook the lot in the same tray I was going to put the rice in – using a combination steam setting means they come out a tiny bit frazzled on top and don’t get too ‘sweaty’ as they would if you just steamed them.
  4. A note about butter vs olive oil when cooking the vegetables and pancetta: just after I wrote the first draft of this post, I listened to this podcast in which the hosts discussed how delicious browned butter is in risotto. They were so right - thank you, Molly and Matthew – it gives a little undefinable something to the finished dish, and a richness you won’t get from using olive oil (oh, look at that, I think I’m crossing into food snob territory again. I just can’t help myself). I’ve retested and written the recipe to include the browned butter but olive oil is what I always used previously and it certainly isn’t bad.
  5. Finally, as with many steamed dishes, this one reheats beautifully. You’ll lose a little of the texture in the rice and it will certainly be more firm the next day, but it’s still good. Alternatively, you could crumb and deep fry little balls of the leftovers into arancini, if that’s your thing.

Nutrition

Calories: 445kcal | Carbohydrates: 49g | Protein: 15g | Fat: 19g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 42mg | Sodium: 429mg | Potassium: 556mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 375IU | Vitamin C: 9mg | Calcium: 131mg | Iron: 3mg