Orzo with Tomatoes and Spinach

My Auntie Dorothy requested a recipe using Orzo. I had never used Orzo before, it is a pasta that looks like a big fat rice grain. It is tasty.

It took me awhile to find a recipe I liked I ended up combining a bunch of recipes to get the elements I wanted. It turned out awesome. This is a great summer dish. Simple and easy and you only have to cook the Orzo no oven, so perfect for those hot days.

Here is what you will need,

4-5 cups of packed spinach, I used baby

1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

2 lemons, zested

1 1/2 cups Orzo

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

12-14 large basil leaves

coarse salt and pepper to taste

Parmesan cheese to garnish

Cook Orzo according to package directions
Pile spinach leaves in stacks and thinly slice leaves to make spinach confetti. Place the spinach into the bottom of a large glass bowl.
Cut the tomatoes in half and add them into the bowl as well as the zest of 2 lemons. You can save the lemons for another recipe!
Add the hot cooked and drained orzo to the bowl. The heat of the pasta will wilt the spinach and warm the tomatoes. Drizzle the olive oil over the pasta and toss to combine. Add in the chopped fresh basil and salt and pepper to taste. Top with Parmesan cheese.

This took me all of the 12 minutes it took to cook the Orzo which rocks my world. Plus it is amazingly tasty.

Wanna see a cool trick? I saw it on Rachel Ray one day. It is a miracle! It makes cutting a bunch of cherry tomatoes in half super crazy easy.
Flip a plate upside down and put the tomatoes on the bottom, like so...

Put another plate the right side up on top of the tomatoes,

Then hold a knife horizontally to the table,

Gently hold down the top plate and slice through the tomatoes.

What you get is a whole bunch of tiny tomatoes all cut in half in one swift move.

I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner. Awesome!
Anything to make cooking easier.

I hope you like this one Auntie Dorothy!

Jen