to make sure the rice is still a little bit uncooked at the end of this stage).
while the rice is cooking, finely chop the half onion and soften it in a pan with a generous amount of olive oil, over a low heat (let the onion soften slowly, making sure it does not go brown). finely chop the parsley and basil, and add these to the onion just as the rice is nearly ready at the not quite cooked stage. make sure you don’t fry the herbs for too long.
drain the rice, leaving it quite wet, and saving the cooking water. add the rice to the pan with the olive 