A risotto shows off its wine. Choose the wine you want to drink, put a little of it in a simple risotto; and you will have a pretty pairing.

You can further shape your risotto to your wine by choosing your ingredient and seasoning additions. Make a style of risotto to suit the style of your wine.

It is wonderfully useful to know of this one basic dish which can go well with, and even enhance, almost any table wine. Other than plain chicken breast, I know of no other basic dish that is so surely, consistently and smoothly paired with wine.

The risotto-wine concept is useful and timely:
Risotto is easy, and a home cook can make one easily.
It takes little time.
It takes few ingredients.
It can be moderate in cost.
It can be main course, or a first course.

You can choose your wine and risotto according to the day's mood, and bridge the seasons from delicate fare more suited to the warmer months, to robust flavors more suited to the cool months.

A risotto is a lot easier to actually make than it appears when reading recipe directions. Once you know the basic risotto method, you will soon make risotto "with the back of your hand," not even referring to recipe instructions.

Honor these principles for the best risottos (risotti in Italian):

Use only Arborio, Vialone or Carnaroli rice: Italian white short-grain rice. Carnaroli is considered the premium risotto rice; it holds its shape especially well in cooking yet softens enough to take up flavors. Some Arborio-style rice is now grown in California.

Add the major part of the wine ingredient at the start of cooking, so it loses its alcohol and mellows to the essence of its flavor. For some risottos, you will want to add a spoonful of wine at the end of cooking in order to give a fleeting waft of the wine and reinforce the definitive taste of the wine in the finished flavor.

A risotto can only be as good as its broth; a fine homemade broth is best.

Use hot broth (not cool). You want to keep an even temperature on the rice during cooking; so the rice grains cook through and swell evenly and without undue disturbance.

Keep a thin veil of broth over the gently bubbling rice throughout cooking; so the grains absorb the broth evenly.

Stir risotto occasionally (not constantly) as it cooks; be gentle so the rice grains hold their shape.

Cook rice until it is tender but firm to the bite. Taste to test for doneness.

Use as much broth as you need. The finished risotto should be loose and rolling of texture; it should flow.

Serve on warm dinner plates.

Risotto with Lettuce Chiffonade
Makes 4 first-course or 2 to 3 main-course servings.

This is for a Chardonnay with some young fruit and with or without a little show of wood aging. Note: A version of this recipe was originally designed to go with an Estate Bottled Sanford Chardonnay.

INGREDIENTS
2 T minced white onions or 1 1/2 T green onions (white part only)
2 1/2 T unsalted butter
1 c. Italian Carnaroli or Arborio rice
3/4 c. Chardonnay
About 3 1/2 c. hot, mild, beef broth
Generous 2 c. chiffonade of butter or limestone lettuce leaves (loosely pack to measure)
1 T soft unsalted butter
About 1/3 c. freshly grated dry (aged) Jack cheese
1/2 c. heavy (whipping) cream slowly reduced to 1/4 c.
Salt
Scant 1/4 tsp. hot dry red chile flakes .

TECHNIQUE
In a medium-large heavy kettle over medium heat, cook and turn onions in the 2 1/2 tablespoons butter until translucent. Add rice, heat and stir for 2 minutes. Add wine and cook until it almost disappears. Add 1/2 cup of the broth and allow to gently boil over rice, stirring, until almost absorbed. Add remaining broth, 1/2 cup at a time, cooking and occasionally stirring, until rice is tender and broth almost absorbed, about 20 to 25 minutes total. (Use more broth if necessary; keep a thin veil of broth over rice throughout cooking.) Sprinkle lettuce over bottom of warm serving plates.

TO SERVE
Remove risotto from heat; stir in soft butter, cheese, hot cream and salt to season; spoon over lettuce, leaving a small border of lettuce. The hot risotto gently wilts lettuce to a delicate sweetness. Sprinkle with chile.

Wild Mushroom Risotto
Makes 4 first-course or 2 to 3 main-course servings

Make with and for a ready, rich Piedmont red wine: a Nebbiolo, Barbaresco or Barolo.

INGREDIENTS
2 T minced white onions
2 T unsalted butter
3 T finely cut-up, thinly sliced lean pancetta (about 1 oz)
1 c. Italian Carnaroli or Arborio rice
1 large minced peeled garlic clove
2/3 c. Nebbiolo, Barbaresco or Barolo, divided
About 3 1/2 c. hot, mild, lean beef broth
2 tsp. soft unsalted butter
About 1/3 c. freshly grated Reggiano (Parmesan) cheese
Prepared mushrooms (recipe below)*
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

*Prepared mushrooms. In a medium-large heavy frying pan over medium-high heat, cook and turn 1/2 pound thinly sliced full-flavored mushrooms such as brown field, chanterelles or porcini (or mixture of mushrooms; do not use shiitakes) in about 3 tablespoons unsalted butter until juices disappear and mushrooms are tender and slightly edged with toastiness. Season with salt and pepper.

TECHNIQUE
In a medium-large heavy saucepan over medium heat, cook and turn onions in the 2 tablespoons butter until translucent. Stir in pancetta. Add rice and heat and stir for 2 minutes. Stir in garlic. Add all except 2 tablespoons of the wine and cook until it almost disappears. Add 1/2 cup of the broth and allow to gently boil over rice, stirring, until almost absorbed. Add remaining broth, 1/2 cup at a time, cooking and occasionally stirring, until rice is tender and broth almost absorbed, about 20 to 25 minutes total. (Use more broth if necessary; keep a thin veil of broth over rice throughout cooking.) Stir in and heat remaining wine.

TO SERVE
Remove from heat. Fold in soft butter, cheese, mushrooms, and salt and pepper to taste.

Fennel Risotto with Almond Cream
Makes 4 first-course or 2 to 3 main-course servings.

This is delicate of taste and varied of texture. A fresh Vermentino from Sardinia such as the 1997 Piero Mancini is satisfying. Or choose another rather delicate almond-toned young dry Italian white.

INGREDIENTS
Scant 3 c. very thinly crosswise-sliced trimmed raw fennel (loosely pack to measure)-about 3 medium-small bulbs; trim well to remove top, bottom and tough outer layers
1 T fresh lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 T minced white onions
2 1/2 T unsalted butter
1 c. Italian Carnaroli or Arborio rice
1/3 c. Vermentino
About 3 1/2 c. hot, mild, lean chicken broth
1 T soft unsalted butter
1/2 c. freshly grated Reggiano (Parmesan cheese)
3 T heavy (whipping) cream slowly heated to reduce to 1 1/2 T
2 T very coarsely chopped lightly toasted natural almonds

TECHNIQUE
Turn fennel with lemon juice to coat, and salt and pepper to season. In a medium-large heavy saucepan over medium heat, cook and turn onions in the 2 1/2 tablespoons butter until translucent. Add rice, cook and stir for 2 minutes. Add wine and cook until it almost disappears. Add 1/2 cup of the broth, 1/2 cup at a time, cooking and occasionally stirring, until rice is tender and broth almost absorbed, about 20 to 25 minutes total (Use more broth if necessary; keep a thin veil of broth over rice throughout cooking).

TO SERVE
Sprinkle fennel over bottom of warm serving plates. Remove risotto from heat; stir in soft butter, cheese, hot cream and salt and pepper to season; spoon over fennel. Sprinkle with almonds.

Prosciutto-radicchio Risotto
Makes 4 first-course or 2 to 3 main-course servings.

This is fine with a full-flavored Orvieto such as the l997 Palazzone Orvieto Classico, Terre Vineate.

INGREDIENTS
About 6 oz. radicchio
2 T minced white onions
2 1/2 T unsalted butter
1 c. Carnaroli or Arborio rice
1/4 c. Orvieto
About 3 1/2 c. hot, mild, lean, beef broth
1 T soft unsalted butter
About 1/2 c. freshly grated Reggiano (Parmesan) cheese, divided
Salt
About 8 (2 1/2 oz) very thin lean slices Italian prosciutto.

TECHNIQUE
Remove radicchio white core; knife-shred radicchio very finely. In a medium-large heavy saucepan over medium heat, cook and turn onions in the 2 1/2 tablespoons butter until translucent. Add rice, cook and stir for 2 minutes. Add wine and cook until it almost disappears. Add 1/2 cup of the broth and allow to gently boil over rice, stirring, until almost absorbed. Add remaining broth, 1/2 cup at a time, cooking and occasionally stirring, until rice is tender and broth almost absorbed, about 20 to 25 minutes total (use more broth if necessary; keep a thin veil of broth over rice throughout cooking). Remove from heat, stir in soft butter, half of the cheese and salt to season.

TO SERVE
Sprinkle radicchio over bottom of warm serving plates; spoon flowing risotto over. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Ripple prosciutto over top.