If you have an abundance of cherry tomatoes to use up, this recipe is a must-make. I cooked up a batch last night and the flavor was ridiculously good.
It’s adapted from a NY Times Cooking recipe from July of this year. And since we didn’t have enough cherry tomatoes, we used other tomato types that worked just as well.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large shallot, chopped (about ⅓ cup) (we used chives)
- Salt
- 1 tablespoon grated garlic, from 3 to 4 large cloves (we used garlic oil)
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper (go with 1/2 tsp. It’s not hot, just flavorful)
- 1½ pounds cherry tomatoes (or paste/plum or, heck, any other type you have – just cut into cherry-sized pieces)
- 1 cup tightly packed fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped, plus 1 sprig
- 1 pound orzo
- 1 quart (4 cups) low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth
- ⅔ cup grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1½ teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Method
You can use either a dutch oven or a deep 12″ skillet with lid for this recipe. Let’s get started:
Heat oil on medium heat, toss in your shallot (chives) and sprinkle with 1 tsp. salt. Let that cook a couple minutes. Add your red pepper flakes and garlic (hold garlic oil until later) and let it get fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Pour in your tomatoes and the sprig of basil. Add 1 1/4 cups of water, (add garlic oil if using) then cover the pot. Raise the temperature to medium-high and cook until the tomatoes soften up and burst when you press one with a spatula against the side of the pan. This will take about 8 minutes.
After 8 minutes, go to town popping those tomatoes. Be careful! They can splatter everywhere so keep that lid close by as a shield. Keep cooking with the lid on another 6-10 minutes, until the liquid thickens and reduces by half. It should look more like tomato soup than broth.
Next: pour in your orzo pasta, all the broth and another 1/4 tsp. salt. Bring the mixture to a boil over 4-5 minutes. Then lower the heat to simmer, and stick close to the pan. You’ll need to stir once every minute to keep the orzo from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Cook another 9-10 minutes until the orzo is tender and the mixture is saucy.
Last step! Take the pan off the heat, fish out the basil sprig and discard it. Fold in your parmigiano reggiano, butter, and lemon juice, and all that beautiful chopped basil. Serve right away with extra parm on top.
Eat it all!
Orzotto a is fun and easy way to solve tomato overload. Make this dish, you won’t regret it.
