Orzo with Broccolini and Frisee

Broccolini, toasted walnuts, and parmesan put bass notes under a treble clef of lemon zest and still-slightly-crunchy frisée. Easy, different, and delectable.

Ingredients
2 rounded cups whole wheat orzo pasta
2.5 cups chicken broth
Olive oil
1 large shallot, chopped
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1 bunch broccolini, coarsely chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 can butter beans, rinsed and drained
Slosh of white wine
2/3 head frisée, cut into 1 inch pieces (saute for 2-3 min until just wilted)
Zest of 1 Meyer lemon
Salt
Shaved Parmesan
About 3 handfuls toasted walnuts, chopped
Coarsely ground black pepper

Bring the broth to a simmer in a small covered pot.

Heat a wide, deep pan over medium heat. Add a generous glug of olive oil and let heat for a moment, then add the shallot and sauté for a minute until it softens slightly. Add the garlic and a pinch of salt, turn the heat down a bit to medium-low, and continue to sauté for another couple minutes until the shallot is translucent.

Add the orzo to the broth, replace the cover, lower the heat, and simmer gently for 8-9 minutes or according to package directions.

Add the broccolini to the shallot-garlic mixture and return the heat to medium. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes. Add the butter beans, stir, then add a slosh of wine and cover the pan to steam for another couple minutes. Stir in 2/3 of the lemon zest and another pinch of salt. Adjust both to taste.

When the orzo has only a minute to go, fold the endives into the broccolini mixture and let wilt slightly. Add the orzo, sprinkle liberally with freshly ground black pepper, and turn off the heat. Fold everything together.

Serve into soup plates. Use a carrot peeler to shave Parmesan over the top, and sprinkle liberally with chopped walnuts.

Serves 4.

Orzo with Roasted Peppers, Butter Beans, and Kale

A year or two ago, I watched a friend of mine toss some peppers in the oven to roast, so that she could use them throughout the week. Now, this friend is an excellent cook, a superbly efficient juggler of work and life and food and laughter, and generally full of top notch advice. In other words, one might think I would have taken notes. I should have gone straight home, acquired a large number of bell peppers, and commenced a happy and full life of weekly pepper roasting.

I did not.

What's wrong with me? Nobody knows. But belatedly, I have remedied my ways. I have become a Weekly Pepper Roaster. Or at least, an occasional weekly pepper roaster. Try it. Today. Or in a year. You'll see.

 
Make one for this dish, one for a fancy sandwich, one for a dreamy quesedilla, and one to pay yourself in snack taxes as you cook throughout the week.

Ingredients

Olive oil

1 large bell pepper

1/2 head cauliflower, chopped

1 bunch dino or green kale, diced

3 large cloves garlic, pressed

1 1/4 cups veggie or chicken broth

1 rounded cup whole wheat orzo

1 can butter beans, rinsed and drained

Slosh white wine or broth

Zest of about 3/4 of a Meyer lemon

1/2 cup Parmesan, grated with a microplane

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

To roast the peppers:
Preheat the oven to 450°F. Take a roasting pan, brush just under where the peppers will go with olive oil, then lay the peppers on their side. Roast for 15 minutes, turn 1/4 turn, then roast another 10 minutes on each side (about 45 min total) until the peppers start to slightly deflate. Remove from the oven and set on a plate to cool. Pull out the core, cut them in half, peel, and de-seed. (Can be kept in the fridge in an air-tight container for at least a week...pour the leftover juices over them before refrigerating.)

Meanwhile:
While the peppers are roasting or just after they emerge, toss the chopped cauliflower in a drizzle of olive oil to coat, scatter on another baking pan, and cook in the oven until golden brown, stirring every 4 minutes or so (12-15 minutes total).

For the pepper you're using right now: Slice into strips lengthwise, then cut the strips in half crosswise.

Meanwhile, set a wide sautée pan over medium heat. When hot, add a generous glug of olive oil. Add the kale and toss to coat with the oil, then cover the pan and let cook for 4-5 minutes or so. Sprinkle with salt, stir, and then let cook for another 4-5 minutes. (It's fine if it browns, and it's fine if it doesn't. Don't stress. It will take care of itself.)

Bring the broth to a boil in a small pot for the orzo. When it reaches a boil, add the orzo, turn the heat down to low, and simmer 9 minutes or according to package directions.

Add the garlic and a little olive oil to the kale and sauté, stirring, for a couple minutes until the garlic softens. Add the butter beans and toss lightly. Stir in a glug of wine (or a slosh of broth, if you don't have white wine on hand). Cover for a couple minutes to let simmer. Uncover, stir in the lemon zest and the peppers, and replace the cover. Turn off the heat.

When the orzo is al dente, drain off any excess broth, then toss gently with the kale mixture. Stir in half the parmesan and a liberal dusting of black pepper. Serve warm, topped with the rest of the parmesan and the roasted cauliflower.

Serves 2.

Lemon Ricotta Orzo with Crispy Prosciutto

Not yet ready for pumpkin everything? Wade into autumn with this perfect blend of zesty lemon ricotta (remember summer?) and toasted walnuts with crispy prosciutto (hello, fall). Surprisingly easy to make, especially if you toast your walnuts ahead of time, and a delightful balance between tasting decadent and feeling light.

Ingredients
For the pesto:
1 1/2 cups packed basil leaves
1 large or 2 small cloves garlic
1 handful baby arugula
1 tbsp pine nuts
1 giant spoonfuls ricotta
Zest of 1 lemon
Generous drizzle olive oil
Slosh white or rose wine

For the pasta:
1 rounded cup whole wheat orzo pasta
1/4 cup toasted walnuts, coarsely chopped
(toast for 7-9 minutes at 400° until fragrant and golden brown)
2 slices prosciutto, diced (optional)
1 handful baby arugula
1 giant spoonful ricotta
Salt

Combine the pesto ingredients in a blender and blend till smooth.

Heat 1 1/4 cups water in a small pot to bring to a boil. Add the orzo and a pinch or two of salt, cover, and reduce heat. Simmer 8 minutes, or 1 minute less than package directions suggest.

Meanwhile, heat a nonstick pan over medium heat. Add a drizzle of olive oil, then scatter the prosciutto in a single layer to fry. Fry about 2 minutes, stirring halfway through, until crispy. Drain and set aside in a small dish.

When the orzo is done, return the nonstick pan to the stove and set over medium-low heat. Drizzle with olive oil, then add the orzo and pesto and fold to combine. Let heat through for about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, then fold in your second heaping spoonful of ricotta. Add a handful of arugula, fold to combine, and turn off the heat.

Serve into soup plates, scatter liberally with prosciutto and walnuts, and serve hot.

Serves 2 with a side salad.

Orzotto with Braised Collards

One side effect of becoming obsessed with vegetables is that every now and then—surely no more than five times a week—I forget to consider the rest of the meal. For example, sometimes I start thinking about collard greens, and then I can't think of anything else. Or if I do manage to consider other food groups, they pale in comparison. "Collard greens," I say to myself. "And lentils?" asks a small, distant, entirely irrelevant voice in my head. "COLLARD GREENS," I repeat, out loud, more firmly this time. "Um, well, actually," says the person standing next to me at the co-op, where I stand gazing longingly at the leafy vegetable section, "I was just hoping to squeeze past you to get some carrots."

The point being, I buy the collard greens, I speed home to cook the collard greens, and somewhere halfway through slicing them, it occurs to me that they may not actually make up an entire dinner all by themselves.

Fortunately, I am an experienced cupboard forager. Which in this case turned up orzo and butter beans. The result? Rich, satisfying, collard greeny pasta perfection.

Ingredients
Olive oil
1 large red onion, halved and sliced fairly thinly

2 strips Niman Ranch applewood smoked bacon, sliced into strips

3 large cloves garlic, pressed or minced

1 bunch collard greens, halved lengthwise and sliced into one-inch strips*

Salt & pepper, to taste

1 loose tbsp finely chopped oregano

1/3 cup chicken broth + 1 1/4 cups chicken broth

1 1/2 rounded cups whole wheat orzo pasta

1 can butter beans, rinsed and drained**

Parmesan (optional)

Sauté onions over medium-high heat in a wide pan with a little olive oil for a minute or so, until they begin to cook down a little. Push to one side and add the bacon to the other. Cook until the bacon begins to brown a little, turning the onions over once or twice in the meantime. Stir to combine, and continue cooking until until the onions are golden. Add the garlic, turn heat to medium, and saute for one minute more. Add the greens and salt and cook, stirring, for two more minutes, then add the oregano and 1/3 cup broth and bring to a boil. Turn heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding a little water if it starts to dry out.

About 15 minutes before the collards are done, start the 1 1/4 cups of broth heating in a small pot. Bring to a boil.

When there are about 10 minutes left, add the butter beans to the collard greens and stir to combine. Replace the cover. Add the orzo to the broth, turn the heat down to low, and simmer for 9 minutes or according to package directions, stirring once in the middle. Uncover, stir, and simmer off any excess broth. Fold the pasta into the collard greens.

Add a little grated Parmesan if desired, top with black pepper, and serve warm (too hot and you'll lose some of the flavor).

Serves 3.

*If you have a particularly small bunch of collard greens, you can add about 1/2 cup of frozen kale or spinach when you add the butter beans if you want a little more green.
**World Market has Italian butter beans that are much more giant, fat, and buttery than the normal butter beans you find in the supermarket. They are particularly amazing in pastas and pasta salads. They are also not remotely local or BPA-free, so I'm not recommending them, I'm just objectively describing their tendency to make my tastebuds swoon with happiness.

Orzotto with Braised Kale and Butternut Squash

Found in the fridge: Green kale, garlic. Found on the washing machine: A butternut squash, shallots, also fabric softener but clearly that had been misplaced from its proper location. Found in the cupboard: Whole wheat orzo, cannellini beans.

Solution: Dinner now, laundry later.

This is one of those meals you can start cooking as soon as you have the first ingredients ready and prepare the rest as you go, which means it manages to pull off that obsession-worthy trifecta of being easy, healthy, and deeply delicious.


Ingredients
Olive oil
1 medium to large shallot, halved lengthwise and sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, smashed
1 bunch green kale, sliced into thin ribbons
1 cup diced butternut squash
1 can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1.5 cups flavorful chicken and/or veggie broth
1 rounded cup whole wheat orzo pasta
Salt and white pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese

Heat a generous glug of olive oil in a wide saute pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and shallot and saute for 1-2 minutes, until they soften slightly. Add the kale, in batches if the pan isn't big enough to hold it all at once before it starts to wilt, and toss well with the garlic and shallot. Saute, turning occasionally with tongs, until the kale wilts down quite a bit, drizzling with a little more olive oil if necessary.

When the kale has mostly wilted, add the butternut squash. Stir, sprinkling with salt, then add a slosh of broth and cover. Let simmer for 3-5 minutes, uncover, stir, add a slosh more broth, and repeat. Continue this for 15-20 minutes, turning the heat down to low about midway through. (Don't worry the kale mixture sticks to the bottom of the pan a bit now and then—the browning actually makes it taste even better). Add the beans, stir, and continue to cook over low heat for 3-5 more minutes, then turn off the heat and let sit for the flavors to blend.

Meanwhile, bring 1 1/4 cups of broth to boil in a smallish pot. Add the orzo, stir, and cover. Turn the heat down to low and simmer for 9 minutes, or according to package directions. (If you double this recipe, you may want to use a bit less broth, or else uncover the pot to let the excess broth evaporate at the end.)

Stir the orzo into the kale and squash mixture and adjust salt to taste. Serve into bowls, and sprinkle lightly with Parmesan cheese and white pepper.

Serves 2-3.

Orzotto with Ripe Tomatoes, Bacon, and Red Wine

I am not fanatically obsessed with bacon.

Watch. I will talk about other things. Spinach. Mushrooms. Tomato. Bac....bacalao. Yes. As in the Spanish fish. And bac...ardi. See? Lots of other things on my mind.

This recipe just happens to have bacon in it. Incidentally. A casual observer might not even notice it. Until they, you know, tasted its rich bacony wonderful goodness.

Despite the depths of bacony flavor here, there's actually very little bacon per serving, and tons of whole grains and vegetables. And the entire thing is a cinch to throw together, if you're cooking for two. (A recent reprise for four reminded me that doubling recipes is often trickier than I expect, because it's not just the ingredient numbers that change but also the cooking times. Double the orzo here, and you have to make sure to stir it a couple times so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot while it cooks and extend the cooking time by a minute or so. Double the tomatoes, and suddenly a pan that had very little liquid and could boil off a slosh of wine in 10 seconds gets a little soupy. The solution? Keep an eye on the depth of your ingredients...if you're doubling a recipe that calls for sauteing, it's good to also use a wider pan so the ingredients don't get too crowded. And, stay flexible. If something is soupy, you can always boil off a little liquid to fix it. If something isn't cooking evenly, give it a stir from time to time. And when in doubt, reassure yourself that it really doesn't matter if something is overcooked or undercooked or soupy...all anyone will notice once they start eating is the awesomeness of the bacon.)

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups broth
1 rounded cup whole wheat orzo
3 oz frozen spinach, microwaved for 2 minutes and drained
Olive oil
1 strip Niman Ranch applewood smoked bacon, sliced into strips
(you can substitute another kind of bacon, but you'll probably need to use twice as much and it still won't taste as roundly delicious.)
1 small to medium-sized shallot, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Salt
Several ripe, fragrant tomatoes, cut into chunks
Lots of basil (to taste), chiffonade or chopped
Slosh or two red wine
About 2 oz grated Parmesan cheese
Freshly ground black pepper

Sprinkle the tomatoes lightly with salt and let sit while you start cooking, to bring out the flavor.

In a smallish pot, bring the broth to boil. Add the orzo and stir once, then cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 9 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a wide nonstick pan over medium heat. When hot, add the bacon and cook for 2-3 minutes until it starts to turn lightly golden in a couple places. Add a little olive oil, the shallot and garlic, and a pinch of salt, and saute for a minute or two more until the shallot softens. Add the spinach, using two spoons or spatulas to separate clumps if needed, then add the tomato and saute for a minute till just warmed through. Toss in the basil and a slosh or two of red wine. Stir, let simmer for a minute more, then turn off the heat.

Fold the orzo into the tomato mixture, stir in the Parmesan, and sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper. Serve hot.

Serves 2.

Mostly Plants in a Hurry: Orzotto Meets the Complete Beet

What's that you say? More beets, please? I do believe we've got you covered.

This is the perfect quick-and-easy way to use up your leftovers from this recipe, which you have either already made or must immediately swear to make tonight.

[Insert pause for beet swearing purposes. If you still think you don't like beets, you may swear at rather than about beets at this juncture, but you must also grapple with the heart-wrenching possibility that underneath your staunch and steadfast beetophobia may lurk a fellow beetophile just waiting to spring forth. It's possible. Admit it. End pause.]

This also involves both beet tops and beet bottoms, making it a Complete Beet sort of dish. The Complete Beet rhymes, and this makes me inordinately happy. So does the fact that you can whip up something that tastes this good in only 15 minutes.

Ingredients
About one cup leftover roasted beets
1 rounded cup whole grain orzo
1 1/4 cups chicken broth
Olive oil
1 medium to large clove garlic, sliced
1 bunch beet greens, sliced crosswise into ribbons
A handful of arugula (optional)
1 oz. soft goat cheese, crumbled
Kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper

Heat the broth in a covered pot over medium heat until it boils, then stir in the orzo. Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 8-9 minutes or until al dente.

Meanwhile, heat a saute pan over medium heat. Add a glug of olive oil, then add the garlic and saute for about a minute until it softens. Add the beet greens and stir to combine. Saute for a minute, stirring occasionally, and then cover the pan and let steam for 2-3 minutes more until wilted and tender, uncovering and stirring every minute or so. Toss in the arugula, sprinkle with salt and white pepper to taste, and stir to combine. Turn off the heat and cover to keep warm.

Zap the beets in the microwave on high for about a minute or until just heated through.

When the orzo is done, add it to the greens and stir to combine. Crumble in about half the goat cheese. Spoon into soup plates, top with the leftover beets, and sprinkle with the rest of the crumbled goat cheese. Serve hot.

Serves 2 for an easy lunch or light dinner.

Roasted Butternut Orzo with Walnuts and Garlicky Greens

Armed with whole grain orzo, anything is possible. Especially if you happen to have a chunk of leftover roasted butternut squash idling away on the top shelf of your refrigerator. (If you're looking for a feasible and delicious New Years resolution, I highly recommend committing yourself to sticking a halved butternut squash in the oven one night and then congratulating yourself on your good sense and culinary prowess for your next two to six meals. One of which should involve making this.)

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat orzo pasta

Just under 1 1/4 cups broth

1/4 cup broken walnuts, lightly toasted

Olive oil

2 small to medium cloves garlic, smashed

About 3 cups sliced greens (e.g., spinach, mustard, chard, and/or fava greens)

Slosh white wine

Salt, to taste

1/2 to 1 cup flat-diced* leftover roasted butternut squash

Liberal sprinkling white pepper

Pinch or two Meyer lemon zest

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Bring broth to a boil in a covered pot. Add the orzo, replace the cover, and turn the heat down to low. Simmer 9-10 minutes or until al dente. If there is extra liquid left at the end, simmer with the cover off for a minute until it evaporates.

Meanwhile, heat a wide saute pan over medium heat. Add a glug of olive oil and then the garlic, pressing it into the oil until it gets light hints of gold on both sides. Stir in the greens and a pinch or two of salt and saute, stirring, until they wilt. Add a slosh of wine and saute for a moment more, then gently stir in the squash and saute until heated through. Turn off the heat, add the cooked orzo, white pepper, lemon zest, and half the cheese, and stir to combine. Spoon into preheated bowls, and top with the rest of the cheese and the walnuts before serving.

Serves 2.

*As in, kind of like dicing, only imagine the cube you'd get and cut it in half to get a flatter square or rectangle. I don't understand why there's not a proper cooking term for this, since it's the perfect cut for so many things (mango over fish or chicken, butternut squash in risottos and pastas, apples or pears for a salad). I am hereby officially coining the term flat-dicing, unless someone can think of a better one, especially something that starts with Z. Zletting. Zanziputting. You get the idea.

Orzotto with Ripe Tomatoes and Sweet Basil

Have I mentioned that the fall quarter started? The fall quarter started. Inevitably, this means we run completely out of groceries without noticing, and then act shocked when it happens, as though we vaguely remembered there being small and assiduous grocery gnomes who did this sort of thing for us last time. (There have never been grocery gnomes, just in case you were suddenly perking up, wondering where to get some. Maybe at Costco. I will check).

Anyway, a few nights ago, after a fruitless 8pm run to our beloved Co-op for some quick-and-easy dinner ingredients, which happened to all be completely sold out, we begrudgingly started rooting around in our cupboards and fridge and garden for something remotely palatable to cook. Except that this turned out to be wonderful -- an Italianish, risotto-esque dinner that cooks in a fraction of the time thanks to the orzo pasta substituting for rice. So next time you have perfectly ripe tomatoes and fresh basil, try throwing this together. You can use white orzo instead of whole wheat if the latter proves difficult to track down (we found ours at Market of Choice in Oregon, but surely there must be other places that carry it), and either way, the whole dish takes less than 20 minutes.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups vegetable broth

1 cup dried whole wheat orzo pasta

1 small clove garlic, pressed

3 medium-sized ripe, fragrant tomatoes, cut into what I'm going to call hunks (1-inch pieces or so) and sprinkled with 2 pinches salt (let sit for up to 30 minutes to bring out flavor)

30 leaves fresh sweet and/or purple basil, chiffonade

1/2 cup grated Parmiggiano Reggiano

3 tbsp pine nuts, lightly toasted (heat in a pan over medium heat, shaking frequently, till lightly brown)

Bring the broth to a boil in a medium-sized pot and add the orzo. Turn the heat down to low, cover, and simmer for 8-10 minutes until just barely al dente. Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds more, then add the tomatoes and basil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes are warmed through. Turn off the heat, throw in the parmesan, stir to combine, and spoon into bowls. Sprinkle with pine nuts and garnish with a small sprig of basil.

Serves 2, and pairs very well with Cline's Ancient Vine Zin.

Orzo with Chickpeas and Broccoli

This recipe involves...are you sitting down? It involves white, processed, supermarket variety pasta. You can go ahead and kick me out of the whole food club now.

The thing is, we have these small, random pockets of processed in our cupboards still, from before our kitchen's whole food makeover. And sometimes, when you're teaching two two-hour lectures back to back and wading through hours upon hours of meetings, you just want something easy to make for dinner. Besides, there are chickpeas in this. And green stuff. So it's really quite decent, in the grand scheme of things, and totally delicious.

You could make this with whole wheat orzo, and adjust the liquid and cooking times accordingly, and feel up to 11% less skeptical about the foodiness of its contents.

Ingredients
Olive oil
1 medium to large shallot, quartered lengthwise and sliced
2 garlic cloves, smashed
1 scant cup orzo pasta
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 bunch broccolini or broccoli, sliced at an angle
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Handful flat leaf parsley, chopped
Liberal sprinkling of Parmesan cheese
Lemon wedges (optional)

Heat a glug of olive oil in a pot over medium heat. When hot, add the shallot and one of the garlic cloves, and saute for a few minutes until the shallot is soft and the garlic is lightly browned. Add the orzo and stir to coat evenly. After about a minute, add the broth, cover, and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to low and cook 9-10 minutes, or according to package directions.

Meanwhile, heat a wide saute pan over medium heat. Add a generous glug of olive oil and the other clove of garlic, and simmer in the oil until both sides are golden. Add the broccoli and saute, stirring, for a couple of minutes, then add the chickpeas and saute for a moment more. Add the salt and pepper, and cover the pan, turning the heat down slightly. Steam for a couple minutes until the broccoli is just tender, then add the parsley.

When the orzo is al dente, add the broccoli mixture. Stir, add a splash more broth if needed, and cook for a minute more. Turn off the heat, stir in the cheese, and serve hot, garnished with a lemon wedge if desired.

Serves 2.