Jul 27, 2011
This is ultimate comfort food. Good thing I made this the night my boyfriend broke up with me, ha. I only rated it a 3, because it was good AFTER doing what many people in the reviews did. I precooked 1 onion, chopped, 2 cups-ish mushrooms, and a couple handfuls of frozen spinach and added them to the mix, and also added tomatoes (didn't have sun-dried) and 2 cloves minced garlic (used plain cream of mushroom without garlic). I also added a little bit of vegetable broth to add moisture, like 1/3 cup or so. I also put in way more parmesan, but that's because I like cheese. Also, add salt to your taste and plenty of Italian seasoning or fresh herbs of your choice, because it will be bland without it.
I didn't have the pan the recipe asked for, but I just used a 13x9 nonstick baking pan and it was fine. DEFINITELY cook for way longer. I cooked for 45-50 minutes covered and then 11 minutes uncovered afterwards. Also, the recipe says you can use long grain rice... that's false. DO NOT use long grain rice. MAYBE use another short grain rice if you don't have arborio. But if you don't have either, then don't waste your time, else you'll be disappointed with the result. I learned that before with risotto. Good thing about risotto is that it's versatile so you can get rid of some of the extra produce in your fridge and play around with combinations, and besides the splurge on arborio rice, it's (college) budget friendly.
—amynoacid
