Claire's Risotto with Wild Mushrooms, Sun Dried Tomatoes and Rocket

Claire loves risotto and excels at making it as well, so when her friends came for dinner before going out for a night on the town, she made a fabulous pot of things we had picked up at markets on our holidays.  There were dried wild mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes from the Flower Market in Nice, a bottle of Terret-Chardoney we had purchased at our favourite wine store in Nice, and Parmesan Reggiano from our day trip to Italy.  On the way home from the Tate Modern, we made a small detour and picked up the rest of the ingredients including some rocket from Bourogh Market.

Claire's Risotto with Wild Mushrooms, Sun Dried Tomatoes and Rocket

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 shallot
• 500 grams of arborio rice
• 2 cups of white wine
• 3 cups of chicken broth
• 1 cup of dried wild mushrooms
• 1/2 cup of semi-sun dried tomatoes coarsely cut
• rocket (arugula)
• 1 1/2 cups of grated Parmesan Reggiano
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• salt and pepper

Soak dried mushrooms in 2 cups of hot water for an hour.  Coarsely dice shallot.  In a large heavy sauce pan, put 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and heat on stove top,  add shallots and cook until translucent.  Add rice and stir, cooking until the rice has a translucent shell.  Over medium heat, add half of the wine and stir until the the wine is absorbed.  Add the remainder of the wine and stir again until absorbed.  Drain liquid from mushrooms, strain and set aside.  Add mushroom broth to rice mixture and stir until absorbed. Add chicken broth 1/2 cup at time stirring until absorbed and repeating until the rice is cooked el denté.  Stir in mushrooms, tomatoes and cheese.  Add rocket and stir again.  Taste, adjust salt and pepper.  Add a chunk of butter, stir and serve.