This can be added to, to create a main course, or left as it is as a delicious side dish.

Take a couple of sticks of celery and a couple of shallots, and chop them very finely - ideally you want the individual bits of vegetable to be around the same size as the grains of rice, so this might take some perseverance. Melt a good-sized knob of butter in a large non-stick pan and gently sweat the vegetables for about three minutes, over a medium heat. At this point, you add your rice. You should use arborio or carnaroli rice, both of which are freely available in supermarkets (arborio is the easier-to-find and more popular choice, but carnaroli is generally considered to be a bit nicer).

You should use 75g rice per person and for every 75g of rice you use, allow around 200ml of stock. The stock should be light and relevant to what you're cooking - if you're using a vegetable stock cube, for example, you should only use about a third of one per 500 ml - but don't add it straight away.

Give the rice a good stir to coat all of the grains and mix well with the veg and then pour in a glass of dry white wine. Raise the heat of the hob to somewhere between medium and high and stir well, using a wooden implement with a corner so that you can get into all areas of the pan and not leave any sticking. Once the wine has been absorbed - this should take about two minutes, stirring well - add the stock, one ladle at a time. Keep stirring into all corners until all of the stock has gone.

What you'll need to remember is that the rice at the bottom absorbs the liquid more quickly than that near the top, so if you stir into all corners and turning the rice over you'll find the liquid becoming more evenly absorbed. What you're looking for is a mild, creamy and relatively cohesive rice. When it's cooked - when the stock's all been used, which will probably take about 20-25 minutes - remove immediately from the heat and allow to rest for about 5 minutes. At this point you can season it with salt and pepper to taste, add a knob of butter or a spoonful of cream or creme fraiche and a couple of tablespoons of grated parmesan. You could also stir in a little fresh parsley, very finely chopped.