Oven-baked tomato orzo pasta
Orzo pasta is so versatile that I went through a period of eating it multiple times a week. Simply boiled with a delicious sauce, as the base for a pasta salad or as a substitution for rice in a speedy risotto (also called an orzotto), but my recipe for oven-baked tomato orzo pasta is perhaps the fastest and easiest way to enjoy this fantastic and truly underestimated pasta shape!
As a big fan of this ingredient, you can imagine how excited I was when I first found a recipe in The Green Roasting Tin for an orzo pasta dish that required absolutely zero pre-boiling or cooking on the stove. As perfect as that sounds, and as much as I enjoy this version (it has great flavour and uses some clever techniques) it doesn’t have any sauce, therefore is more on the dry side and you can tell the orzo was cooked in the oven.
Therefore not yet the ultimate ‘cheat’ recipe I was looking for, so the search continued. I found many recipes using store-bought tomato sauce, and while perhaps a suitable and easy solution, it doesn’t cook the orzo as well as something in more liquid consistency, and is often pre-flavoured which I didn’t want. Others require for orzo to be pre-boiled, which would defeat the point of this recipe.
I decided to combine a good quality can of chopped tomatoes with chicken stock (which adds great flavour, though you could absolutely substitute with vegetable stock for a vegetarian version), which together with the fresh cherry tomatoes on the vine make a version super rich in tomato flavour and cooks the orzo pasta gently and perfectly.
All that’s required to make this delicious oven-baked tomato orzo pasta recipe, is combine a few ingredients in one single dish and put it in the oven. I promise it really is that simple!
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Oven-Baked Tomato Orzo Pasta Recipe
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 3-4 1x
Description
This one-dish, one-pan recipe for oven-baked tomato orzo pasta with red onion, bay, oregano, chilli and pecorino cheese couldn’t be easier!
Ingredients
- 470g cherry tomatoes on the vine
- 400g can of chopped tomatoes
- 400ml chicken stock (or vegetable to keep vegetarian)
- 220g orzo pasta
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 30g grated Pecorino Romano
- 1/4 red onion
- 4 small bay leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- Pinch of dried chilli flakes
- Handful of fresh basil leaves
- Pepper and salt, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C. Chop cherry tomatoes in half. Keep the vines. Chop red onion finely.
- Bring kettle to a boil. Pour 400ml of hot water into a bowl, add a chicken or vegetable stock cube and dissolve. Add contents of one can of chopped tomatoes, oregano and chilli flakes, grate in the garlic cloves, and mix well.
- In a large oven dish (I use a 32x24cm one) mix the uncooked orzo and tomato/stock mixture with a spatula and make sure the orzo pasta is evenly distributed.
- Top with bayleaves and the reserved vines. Add a generous amount of salt and pepper. Add one even layer of cherry tomatoes, cut side up and scatter over the red onion.
- Bake in the oven for 18 minutes, at which point the orzo should be nearly cooked. Take out of the oven, add grated pecorino cheese and put back in the oven for another 5-7 minutes until pecorino is golden and melted.
- Remove vines and bay leaves before serving and finish with some fresh basil leaves.
Notes
Substitute chicken stock with vegetable stock for a great vegetarian recipe!
- Category: Main Course
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/3
- Calories: 379
- Sugar: 14g
- Sodium: 1934mg
- Fat: 6g
- Saturated Fat: 4g
- Unsaturated Fat: 0g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 64g
- Fiber: 6g
- Protein: 17g
- Cholesterol: 10mg
Keywords: tomato orzo recipe, tomato orzotto recipe, one-pan oven pasta recipe, one-pan orzo recipe, oven-baked tomato orzo
More pasta recipes on Michiel’s Kitchen:
- Homemade spinach tortellini with butternut squash filling and sage
- Recipe for fresh green (spinach) pasta dough
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