Easter Rice Cake

So easy and so delicious, this Easter rice cake is my recreation of the one Nanna used to make. On searching for recipes, I realised that Nanna's rice cake was much simpler (perfectly so, I think) than other regional variations, containing little beyond the rice itself.  I don't know whether hers was a typical Campania recipe, or one of her own, but I am quite proud of how closely mine resembles it.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
1 litre full cream milk
Zest of 2 lemons, finely grated
2 medium eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
4 tbsp Strega or vanilla Galliano
3 tbsp unsalted butter

Method
Line a springform tin (mine is 23cm diameter, but I don't think it really matters) with baking paper.  Preheat oven to 190 degrees centigrade.

In a medium-large saucepan, bring milk to the boil then add the rice.  Turn down heat to a simmer.  Stir continuously until rice is cooked (I really do mean continuously, or the rice will stick to the bottom).  Towards the end of the cooking time, you may need to add a little water if the milk is evaporating too quickly.

Remove from the heat.  Stir in zest, sugar, butter and Strega/Galliano and vanilla essence. Taste and add additional liquor, vanilla, zest or sugar to taste.

When the mixture is sufficiently cool (so that you don't end up with scrambled eggs), stir in the eggs.

Pour mixture into your prepared tin and cook for 20-25 minutes, or until top is firm and golden.

Variation
If you prefer English-style rice pudding to rice cake, you can omit the eggs and baking stage and serve the mixture as a kind of luscious, sweet risotto.