Italian Rice

Italians love rice and are wonderfully creative in their methods of cooking it. Not for them the pallid plain-boiled variety so often served here as a sop for undistinguished gravies of curry and casserole. Instead they combine rice with butter, finely-chopped onion and rich chicken stock, and simmer it gently until it is magically tender-neither mushy soft nor unpleasantly hard - but al dente just like their spaghetti. And then they flavour it with saffron, wild mushrooms or, for more special occasions, chicken, shrimps, prawns or thinly-sliced white truffles.