Comments: If the truth be known, we don’t need 100 rice dishes — certainly not 100 Italian rice dishes, and not even if 50 of them are risottos. But we find, we did need some of these Italian rice recipes. Some of them we needed badly!

While we're confessing, we should also say that The Top One Hundred Italian Rice Dishes got us in a rut. We liked the first one we tried so much, we couldn’t bring ourselves to make any others. We’d head into the kitchen with the book, good ingredients and better intentions, and walk out at the end with the same delicious Potato & Rosemary Risotto. We had chosen it in the first place because it seemed a little strange, and wanted to see if at least some of the recipes in this book didn’t really deserve to be among the top 100 Italian rice dishes.

But author Diane Seed headed us off at the pass, and said that the combination of potato and rice may seem unusual to non-Italians, but that there are a number of well-loved rice dishes in Italy that feature the potato (there are pizzas with potato, too). And the dish, with little cubes of potato that almost melt down to nothing, scented and flavored with rosemary, and finished with butter and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese is absolutely wonderful.

The book includes little sections on the history and evolution of rice in Italy, how to cook risotto, how to boil and deep-fry rice, and also recipes for various stocks you’ll need to make the dishes. It then launches into rice and risotto dishes that include vegetables, fish, meat & poultry, and cheese, and finally presents a section of "Stravaganza" recipes. The stravanganzas include Rose Petal Risotto, Champagne Risotto, Lemon Risotto, Risotto with Traditional Balsamic Vinegar, Risotto with Zucchini Flowers, Sweet Rice Fritters, Risotto with White Truffles, Rice and Orange Soufflé, etc.

We finally tore ourselves away from the Potato & Rosemary Risotto and to try perhaps the most middle-of-the-road stravaganza, the Lemon Risotto, and were delighted. It is not sweet, not a dessert, but a wonderful savory, tart, satisfying dish.

Most of the dishes in this book are main-course candidates. Besides the plethora of risottos, there are many other rice dishes hearty enough to anchor a meal. Among the soups are Rice and Zucchini Broth, Neapolitan Rice and Savoy Cabbage Broth, Spinach & Egg Broth, and Rice & Sausage Broth. Other main-course options include Peppers Stuffed with Rice; Potato, Rice & Tomato Bake; Rice with Vegetables & Shellfish; Rice with Salmon; Rice with Pork Chops; Beef & Rice Bake; Supplì (Fried Rice Croquettes Stuffed with Mozzarella); Rice Omelet, and many others.

Diane Seed is the author of several cookbooks and runs a cooking school in Rome. Some of her other books pay homage to the top 100 pasta sauces, the top 100 Mediterranean dishes, and the top 100 Italian dishes.

So, how many of the top rice dishes will be added to our modest cooking repertoire? Probably not 100, but we're definitely looking forward to trying more — if we can just stay away from that seductive potato and rosemary combination.…