Risotto

Risotto is a fabulous Italian rice dish. Creamy, luscious and delicately flavoured, it's proper comfort food. The rice needs to be medium-grain. Arborio is good, but for mine I use Spanish bomba rice. For the cheese at the end I've suggested Parmesan, but you could use Gran Padano or even Cheddar.

You should use a good-quality stock - here's my chicken stock recipe. Warm the stock in a saucepan and keep it warm throughout the cooking. Melt a small amount of butter in a frying pan on medium heat and stir in the onion. Cook it until softened but not coloured, then stir the rice into the pan. Add two ladlefuls of stock and stir vigorously. When the stock is almost all gone, add another ladleful of stock. Keep on adding stock and stirring. After ten minutes you can add your flavourings - the bacon and mushrooms. Add more stock and keep stirring. After 20 minutes the rice should be cooked - taste a bit to test it. If you run out of stock before the 20 minutes is up, add boiling water.

The finished rice should be wet but not sitting in a pool of liquid. Remove it from the heat and cover it with foil for two minutes. Remove the foil and add the grated cheese and the butter. Stir vigorously until both have melted. Your delicious risotto is now ready.