AGA Oven Mushroom Risotto

There was a time when making risotto meant standing at the stove for thirty minutes, adding stock ladle by ladle, stirring continuously, wondering if this particular batch would achieve the elusive "wave" or whether it would turn gluey, as risotto seems almost designed to do in the hands of the inattentive. This was considered romantic by some, meditative by others, and a colossal waste of time by anyone who had other things to accomplish before dinner. Then someone with an AGA—those magnificent cast-iron ranges that have been heating British kitchens since 1922—discovered that risotto could be made without all that stirring. The simmering oven, which maintains a constant temperature somewhere around 110-120°C, provides exactly the gentle, even heat that risotto requires, and it does so without demanding constant supervision. The result is not quite the same as stove-top risotto—the grains are perhaps marginally less glossy, the texture slightly different—but it is so close that only the most committed risotto obsessive could tell the difference. For the rest of us, the trade-off is obviously worthwhile: twenty minutes of freedom in exchange for a minor textural nuance. This is the kind of bargain that makes the AGA legendary.