Finely chop your onion and celery.

Heat the oil in your pan (see notes) and gently sweat off the onion and celery until they are soft.

Whilst this is cooking, put your stock into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Allow it to sit on a low heat so the stock you are adding is always hot.

Add the rice to the onions, turn up the heat and allow everything to heat up but not brown. Once the rice has started to get glassy translucent edges. Pour in the wine and stir continuously.

Once the wine has evaporated, turn the heat back down low, add two ladles of stock and stir gently. As this stock is absorbed add two more ladles of stock. Make sure you have the risotto on a low heat, otherwise the outside of your rice will cook too quickly and you'll get a mushy crunchy risotto :-(

Continue to stir and add, until your rice is cooked through. This takes somewhere between 15-20 minutes. As you are nearing 15 minutes, start adding the stock one ladle at a time.

There is no exact time for cooking risotto, the only real way to know if it is cooked is to taste it. The rice should be cooked through, with no chalky centre but you still want it to have a bite to it.

Although risotto has to be stirred a lot, it isn't constant. So use the time whilst the rice is cooking to chop your butter into small dice and grate the parmesan.

If you run out of stock before your rice is cooked, use boiling water to finish the cooking. This ensures you don't get an overly salty risotto.

Once the rice is cooked, add the butter and cheese and go crazy with your spoon. Stir. Stir. Stir.

Check the seasoning and add salt if required.

Serve with some cracked black pepper and shavings of parmesan.

Bask in the glory of your creation and smile happily at the empty plates.

Risotto doesn't really heat up, the oozy, unctuous flow disappears as it cools and it never quite returns. So make sure you finish the pan. Second are 110% allowed ;-)