Correct way to count all files from a table ?

If I execute this to get the amount of records in a table I get the correct result, but it takes too long and consumes a lot of resources as if I get all the fields from table:

Doctrine::getTable('Recurso')>findAll()>count();

Am I doing it wrong?, The only other option I've found is to use DSQL and execute a query like "SELECT count from recurso".

Thank you in advance.

Pablo.