Recipe: Rice with Mushrooms

10 mushrooms if canned, or 5 or 6 if fresh ones
3/4 of a cup of rice

Chop up a little onion, parsley, celery, and carrot together, and put them on the fire with two tablespoons of good olive-oil. When this sauce is colored, add two tablespoons of tomato paste, thinned with hot water (or a corresponding quantity of tomato sauce). Season with salt and pepper. Cut the mushrooms into small pieces, and add them to the sauce. Cook for twenty minutes over a medium fire. Put on one
side and prepare the rice as follows:

Fry the rice with a lump of butter until dry; then add hot water, a little at a time, and boil gently. When the rice is half cooked (after about ten minutes) add the mushrooms and sauce, and cook for another ten minutes. Add grated Parmesan cheese before serving.

SIMPLE ITALIAN COOKERY
Antonia Isola