How to make
Finely chop the onion and garlic and stew them for 3 minutes in olive oil.
Add the mushrooms, cleaned and sliced or cut into quarters, if small. Fry them for 3-4 minutes. You can use canned marinated field mushrooms by frying them for just two minutes.
Just put the rice under running water for seconds, since we don't want to wash all the starch out of it to keep it creamy. Fry it for 3 minutes, by stirring constantly.
Pour the boiling water, squeeze the juice of one small lemon (20 ml), add salt and cook it covered for 12 minutes on moderate heat. Open the lid and stir occasionally.
When it is ready, you will notice that there is still liquid on the surface, which is like a cream and this is good in order to have real creamy rice.
To enhance this creaminess, add the butter, half the manchego cheese - grated or grinded in a blender and half the parsley - chopped.
Stir to melt the butter and let the rice absorb its aroma and that of the nice mature cheese.
Immediately divide it into deep plates and sprinkle it with the remaining manchego and fresh parsley.
Serve the dish straight away to feel its charm - al dente rice grains covered in a wonderful creaminess and fragrant mushrooms. The lemon and parsley give incredible freshness and character.
To some extent I can compare this rice to risotto, but there are also quite significant differences such as the absence of white wine in it, as well as the presence of manchego instead of parmesan or pecorino. There are also differences in the preparation technology.
Try and share!