Orzo, also known as risoni, is pasta which is shaped like rice. It’s a great option for bulking up soups or stews, or for making risotto-type dishes without all the faff involved with making rice risotto. This recipe for a gooey, cheesy, risotto-like pasta bake is super simple - it’s a one-pot dish which cuts down on washing up and all you have to do is assemble the ingredients and pop it into into the oven for 20 minutes. There’s no need to pre-cook the pasta, pre-make the sauce or constantly stir it like with risotto. I used homemade pesto in my recipe which I’d made a few days earlier but shop-bought pesto, or another flavoursome sauce, would be just as good. I list below the vegetables I used, but you could use whatever you have to hand. Just make sure you cut or grate it finely enough to cook properly in 20minutes in the oven. You can make this dish as big as you like - just add double the water in mls to the weight of pasta in grams (eg. 200g orzo = 400ml stock/water). The cooking time should be the same. The size below should be enough for approx two toddler-sized portions or one adult-sized portion. The ingredients are... - 100g orzo pasta - 200g boiling water with a 1/2 low salt stock cube (stock cube optional) - 40g cheddar cheese, grated - tablespoon of pesto Vegetables... - 1/4 red onion, finely chopped - 1/4 carrot, finely grated - 1/4 courgette, grated - 1 floret of broccoli, chopped - 1 spring onion, finely chopped - 3 cherry tomatoes (or 1 normal tomato), sliced To make... - place the orzo pasta, stock/boiling water and pesto in an oven proof dish, stir well - add all the vegetables apart from the tomatoes, and half the cheese, and stir well again - top with the rest of the cheese and the sliced tomatoes - bake in the oven at 180°C, uncovered, for 20 minutes Serve fresh from the oven, refrigerate or decant into a freezer-proof pot and freeze for later. Enjoy x
