I must admit, until a few years ago I wasn't a huge fan of risotto although perfectly understood the charm behind the dish. With secrete recipes, ingredients and stories hidden in the books of any respectable italian kitchen, risotto embodied some sort of mystery, a taboo for most amateur cooks, including me. The making of it evoked in some people a sort of pain or trepidation, from the careful selection of ingredients to the constant and slow stirring all the way through presentation, no shortcuts are allowed. The reassuring thing is that there are no secrets and making risotto is not such a meticulous process. Instead it's all about practice and fast cooking too, preparing the perfect risotto should not take you more than 20 minutes. Once you have mastered the basic principles you will be able to make the softest, ooziest risottos, adding different seasonal ingredients and turning it into a succession of sublime meals.

Ingredients | serves 6

1 lt. stock ( fresh vegetable or fish as appropriate)
1 knob of butter
2 tbs olive oil
1  onion (finely chopped)
400g rice (carnaroli, vialone nano or arborio)
1 glass of  white wine
salt

In a saucepan heat the olive oil and butter, add the onions and fry  slowly for 5 minutes. When the onions have softened, add the rice and turn up the heat. The rice will begin to lightly fry and will easily stick to the bottom of the pan, so keep stirring it. Add the wine and once this has cooked into the rice , add your first ladle of hot stock and a good pinch of salt. Turn down the heat to a simmer and keep adding stock, stirring and allowing each ladleful to be fully absorbed. This will take around 20 minutes. If you run out of stock before the rice is cooked, add some boiling water. Once the rice is cooked, remove from the heat, add a knob of butter and allow to sit for a couple of minutes. Serve immediately.

Remo Morretta