A rich, comforting and velvety supper for a cold night. A crisp, bitter salad - chicory or frisee dressed with lemon, for instance - is a suitable accompaniment.
Serves 2.

Ingredients

about 900ml ready-made stock (chicken or vegetable)
100g pancetta or bacon, diced
a small onion, finely chopped
a tsp of thyme, finely chopped
a big lump of butter, about 50g
2 teacups/225g risotto rice

To finish:
butter, a walnut sized lump
blue cheese (as much as you like, probably about 225g)

Method

Gently heat the stock in a saucepan. Cook the pancetta and onion and thyme in the butter in a heavy-bottomed pan. When the onion is pale gold and soft and the fat on the pancetta golden and translucent, add the rice and stir through the butter. Add about a third of the hot stock and cook gently, until the rice has absorbed all of the stock. Add a second third of the stock, cook slowly again, then another third. By the time the rice has absorbed most of the stock the grains should be plump and soft, yet with a little bite to them. The total cooking time for the rice should be about 20 minutes. Stir in a generous knob of butter and the blue cheese, crumbled into small lumps. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Serve as the cheese starts to melt.