Pesto orzo with zucchini
Orzo tossed with golden sautéed zucchini, basil pesto, juicy cherry tomatoes and lemon, a fresh summery dinner in 25 minutes.
- 25 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 4
- About $1.89 a serving
- 410 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegetarian
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 2 zucchini
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1½ cups orzo
- ⅓ cup basil pesto
- ½ lemon, juiced
- ¼ cup grated parmesan
From your pantry
- 1 tbsp salt, plus ¼ tsp
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Each serving has about 410 calories, 13 g protein, 55 g carbs and 15 g fat, and costs about $1.89 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No zucchini? Yellow squash works.
- No lemons? Limes work.
- No grated parmesan? Parmesan wedge works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Fill a large pot with water, add 1 tablespoon salt, cover and over high heat.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
While it heats, the zucchini, the garlic and the tomatoes.
Dice. Dicing means cutting food into small, even cubes, usually a quarter to half an inch across. Pieces the same size cook at the same speed, so nothing burns while the rest catches up.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are little cubes about the size of a chickpea, and they all look close to the same.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Halve. Halving means cutting something into two equal pieces. Even halves cook at the same speed, so one doesn’t dry out while the other finishes.
How you’ll know: The two pieces look like mirror images of each other.
Cook the orzo 8 to 9 minutes, until tender.
High heatTimer: 8 min 30 sec
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large over medium-high. Add the zucchini and ¼ teaspoon salt and cook 5 to 6 minutes, stirring only now and then, until .
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium-high heatTimer: 5 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: Let it sit between stirs. Golden zucchini tastes sweet, and zucchini you keep moving just goes soggy.Stir in the garlic for 30 seconds, then take the pan off the heat.
Medium heatTimer: 30 sec
Scoop out ½ cup of the orzo cooking water, then the orzo.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Add the orzo, pesto, lemon juice and of the cooking water and until glossy.
Splash. A splash is a small, quick pour, about a teaspoon to a tablespoon. It’s there to loosen or brighten a dish, so the exact amount doesn’t matter.
How you’ll know: The dish looks a little looser or tastes a little brighter, not soupy.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
the tomatoes and serve topped with parmesan.
Fold. Folding means mixing gently by scooping from the bottom and turning it over the top, instead of stirring hard. It keeps light mixtures airy and soft things like berries or herbs in one piece.
How you’ll know: You use slow, wide strokes and stop as soon as there are no streaks left.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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