A special of gray sole is presented over a creamy scallion risotto with a pleasantly acidic caper-and-eggplant vinaigrette that foils the rich risotto.

New Zealand venison, a special, was chewy but well-seasoned, enhanced by a sweet-tart black currant sauce and a risotto rich with chanterelle mushrooms.

Evening dinners are accompanied by a hedonistic antipasti buffet; it's wise to save room for the rich risottos and handmade semolina pastas.

Some lemon zest at the beginning of the cooking time and a squirt of juice at the end, and you have a bright, golden, rich but not aggressively fishy risotto that makes the perfect cozy supper for two or substantial starter for four.

And then there's dinner - quail with citrus arugula and foie gras fritters, duck steak with endive and soba buckwheat pilaf, a bounty of rich risottos and beautiful chocolate beignets for dessert.

In Piedmont, the wines are often paired with meat dishes, heavy pastas and rich risottos; the tannins bind to the food proteins and come across as softer.

Like a dish from a feast with the Flintstones or Henry VIII, an enormous shank of lamb, ending in a thick ball of tender meat, like a giant drumstick, was embellished with rich risotto, deeply flavored with mushrooms and chestnuts.

Willa Gelber, a partner with her husband-chef, Karl Dauner, in Custom Cuisine, a Manhattan catering firm, uses tiny frozen peas and kernels of corn to add color and flavor to a rich risotto served with a stuffed capon breast.

I Map Punters are drawn to Ciusa for its excellent pizzas, tempting pasta dishes, such as maccarones de busa al ragù (macaroni in a duck sauce), and lusciously rich risotto with melted cheese and wine.

The rich risotto was deeply green and deeply flavored with tiny, tender shrimp arranged around the edges.