Mediterranean cuisine can easily win your heart over when you start learning about it (and it will completely sweep you off your feet when you actually try a Mediterranean dish): healthy, fresh, seasonal and local ingredients combined with a sustainable state of mind will take you right to the Amalfi coast. These principles have spread all over the world as awareness of food production and consumption grows more and more important.
But the principles of Mediterranean cooking is not the only thing that spread throughout the globe, or some of its continents at least. There’s this list of key ingredients that we can easily trace back to this region, but which can now be easily found in local stores and healthy food shops. Orzo is one of them.
The what, how, and where of orzo
If you haven’t heard of it by now, orzo is considered a pastina, that is, wheat-made pasta which has become highly popular in the past few years.
What’s so interesting about this pastina? The fact that it’s a great replacement for rice, not only in shape, but in adaptability.
You know that wherever you go, you’ll have the option of having a rice-based main or side dish. And this might get a bit boring after a while, no matter how different each meal can be. We needed a tasty alternative to rice and orzo is here to take that role.
Nowadays worldwide chefs are looking to import and adapt all sorts of ingredients to their own customs and tastes. And orzo is one of those ingredients that has crossed the border and is now sold and used all over the States.
And that’s not all. We all know that popularity isn’t always a guarantee of good quality, but in this case, there is definitely a correlation. Orzo is fully Mediterranean, that is, it’s healthy and highly versatile as well as filling and time-saving at times. Why so? Because you can make it in advance, store it and add it to a quick and fresh salad to go. Nobody could deny these are essential characteristics today.
Orzo preparations
As mentioned above, orzo can serve both veggie or non-veggie options. That’s up to you and your particular tastes. Due to its popularity, it’s now more and more easily found in local stores, but if you prefer to shop online, you can stock yourself up here: https://riceselect.com/product/orzo.
The best tip you can get today is: get some orzo and start trying rice-based dishes with this new ingredient. However, to get your creativity going, here you’ll find a simple recipe you can follow to give orzo a go.
Ingredients
- Olive oil.
- 2 cups of orzo.
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 onions.
- 500 g of tomato sauce.
- 900 ml of water.
- 900 ml vegetable broth
- 1 pinch of salt.
- 1 pinch of black pepper.
- Oregano to taste.
Preparation
- Peel and dice two onions, set aside. Peel and do the same with two cloves of garlic.
- Take a big pot and preheat it. On a medium heat, pour in some olive oil and add the onions. Season with some salt, some black pepper and oregano to taste. Cook the onions until they are translucent.
- Now, add the garlic and keep cooking, stirring from time to time. Do so for a couple of minutes.
- Next, the tomato sauce should be added to the pan. Be sure to mix everything well.
- Now, add the water and mix the ingredients thoroughly.
- Add the vegetable broth and keep mixing. To save time, you can boil water and add some vegetable flavoured cubes to the boiling water. If you have the time, you can make the broth yourself a day in advance and use it later for this recipe.
- Bring the mix to a boil and once done, take the heat to low and add the orzo pasta. When you do so, mix and stir so that the pasta doesn’t get stuck to the bottom.
- Put a lid on the pot and cook everything for about fifteen minutes. You can check the pan every now and then, and stir if necessary.
- If you notice the liquid is gone, but the orzo is not fully cooked, add some more water, but go little by little so you don’t over cook the pasta.
- Check if some more seasoning is needed and add it to the mix.
Pro tip
Let the orzo rest with the heat off and the lid on once it’s fully cooked, the steam will make it creamier and flavours will expand.
Disclosure: this is a collaborative post