Ingredients:

• 1 cup (8 oz.) uncooked Orzo Pasta
• 1 tablespoon olive oil (also 1 extra tablespoon for the pasta water)
• 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained & chopped
• 1/2 cup sliced black olives
• 1/8 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 1/4 cup sliced roasted almonds
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Salt to taste

Serves 6

Directions:

Cook Orzo pasta as directed on package being sure to add the 1 tablespoon of olive oil and salt to the water.

Drain and chop sun-dried tomatoes and set aside.

Prepare remaining ingredients and set aside.

When pasta is fully cooked, drain and add to a large bowl. Immediately, drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil into the drained pasta and add the sun-dried tomatoes, black olives, red onions and garlic powder. Stir mixture until well-blended. Let set covered for a few minutes to meld the flavors.

After about 5 minutes, add the remaining ingredients to the pasta mixture, stir well and serve.

Make this recipe faster:

You can add all of the ingredients at once to the pasta and serve immediately, but the onions and tomatoes will not have time to come to temperature and will be raw instead of al dente.

Substitutions: If you are using dried sun-dried tomatoes, you will need to soak them in water or oil for about 15 minutes, then drain and chop them to make them moist.

You can almost always substitute fresh herbs for dried herbs. You typically reduce the measurement by 1/3 when using dried because they are much more aromatic than fresh and have a more concentrated flavor.

Also, if you do not have red onion on hand, you could use green onion but the taste won’t be as sweet. I would reduce the amount slightly to remove bitterness.

When do we EAT? Can we Entertain first?:

This is dish that can be easily made in advance and then heated up for the arrival of the guests. I would suggest that if you are making it in advance and then reheating the pasta before serving, you do not add the almonds until after the reheating. If you reheat the almond, they become soft and loose some of their flavor.

Let’s change it up a bit…

You can make this dish with a variety of small pastas such as rotini, fusilli or bow-tie pasta. Orzo was chosen for its similarity to rice and it’s complimentary accompaniment to fish and chicken.

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