Outstanding Orzo

Orzo.  Where have you been all of my life?  Orzo is a pasta that looks like a large grain of rice before cooking.  Lucia’s has a pretty good orzo dish, but it has raw onions in it, and more olive oil than I’d use.  In my opinion, raw onions can ruin a perfectly good “fill in the blank” - anything!  I just don’t care for it.  I blame my older brother for the onion thing.  He didn’t like raw onions.  I think he was trying to rally up the troops against my mother using them.  Generally, it worked.  She would often put them in the blender, so we wouldn’t complain too much.  I’m sure she complained about us not liking them!  Oh, well.  I still don’t like them.  BTW, cooked onions are fine, in most cases.  Onion soup?  Love it, as long as it’s not too salty.  Crazy.  For a really subtle, onion flavor:  leeks.  I had ordered some leeks, fennel, and, of course, kale last week from my new grocery delivery service.  I had planned to make risotto.  Only one problem, no rice for it!  Duh, me!  Again, my creations often stem from my lack of desire to run to the store on the weekends, when I do most of my cooking.  This is a classic example.  

None of my PBS cooking shows were on yesterday.  They are fundraising.  I’m usually inspired by something I see on one of the Saturday PBS cooking shows.  

I had make an olive ciabatta bread this morning.  Yum!  I used the recipe that I posted last week and just added some kalamati olives (the Greek kind).  I had some extra black olives that I’d planned to add to the dough this morning, but was afraid of losing the bubbles that form overnight in the dough.  I had already opened them.  That’s how this got started!  I also have some ricotta cheese that I’ve been trying to use.  I couldn’t figure out how to use that. I froze it to use in lasagna another day.  

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Place 2 cast iron pans inside to heat.

• 1 cup of uncooked orzo.
• Olive oil.  Use just enough to coat the orzo (a few tablespoons).
• 1 fennel bulb, chopped.  Save the small, airy, green tops for later in this recipe.
• 3 leek stalks.  Cut off the root end.  I use 3-4 inches above that and use the rest for compost.  It’s too tough.  The white part is the most tender.  Rinse what you plan to use really well.  There is often dirt in between the layers.
• 1 bunch of kale.  Remove greens from stem and chop.
• 3 tsp. butter.
• Airy green top from fennel bulb.  It looks a lot like fresh dill.  Too pretty to waste.  
• Fresh herbs.  The more variety, the merrier.  I had rosemary, thyme, arugula, cilantro, and fresh parsley.)
• Cayenne Pepper (dash).
• 1 small can of black olives.
• Shredded cheese (asiago , feta, or moz.).
• Toasted nuts (I used pine nuts).

1. Cook the orzo (al dante) for about 8 minutes in lots of boiling water.  Drain.
2. While cooking the orzo, roast fennel bulb, leeks, and kale in cast iron pans with a little bit of butter.  I cook each of the veggies separately.  They don’t all cook evenly.  This mitigates over-cooking some and under-cooking others.
3. Add roasted veggies to the cooked and oiled orzo.
4. Add the fennel green top, fresh herbs, and black olives.  
5. Before serving, top with a little bit of cheese and some toasted nuts.  I don’t add these things until serving.  They would get too damp, to be at their peak, after sitting in the fridge.

This can be served cold or at room temp.  It is a dish that you will want to eat slowly to identify the fresh herbs, roasted veggies and complexity of the different textures.  The leeks provide a mild onion flavor.  The fennel, actually has a licorice kind of “cabbagey” flavor.  Kale is always delicious!  With the olive ciabatta bread that I made.  Even better.