Risotto, in my opinion, gets a bad rap. It is described as, too wet, too dry, too boring, overcooked, undercooked, and difficult. This, in my opinion, is unfair. Risotto takes only a few basic skills and if you make it yourself it needn't be "too" anything, it will be exactly what you want.

There is only one rule with risotto - wash your rice with cold water. I prefer arborio rice for risottos, so I take 100g per person and soak it in water for at least 20 minutes. If you know you're making risotto you can stick the rice in a bowl of water in the morning ready for when you get home. If you're making a quick risotto as a last-minute meal place your rice in a sieve over a bowl and run cold water over it while you prep the rest of your ingredients. Ideally, the water should begin to run clear.

Below is a simple mushroom risotto recipe ideal for weeknight cooking however pretty much all the ingredients can be substituted. I like to make risotto to use up leftover veg. The only thing I would never exclude is stock.

Method

place your rice in a bowl of cold water
Heat your oil in a large frying pan
Fry the onion until it begins to go translucent
Add the garlic and mushrooms to the pan
Once the mushrooms start to soften, drain and rinse the rice. Then add it to the pan. The aim here is to coat all of the grains of rice in oil but not to let it brown, turn down the heat if necessary.
Make up the stock (if you haven't already) and begin to add it to the pan. You want to add about half a cup (or a small mug) at a time and wait for the liquid to fully absorb before adding any more.
Once all the stock has been absorbed add your glass of wine and again wait for it all to absorb.
Add the butter and half of the parmesan and combine
Season to taste and serve with the rest of the parmesan sprinkled over the top

Tips

Always wash your rice for any dish. Ideally, by soaking but alternatively, you can put it in a sieve and run cold water over it for a few minutes.
Use good quality stock as this is where a lot of your flavour is coming from.
Try substituting mushrooms for asparagus, peas, carrots and celery, peppers or whatever is left in the fridge.
Chicken, fish (I like smoked Haddock), tofu and chorizo are all good additions to a risotto just fry them in the pan after the onion.