Sun-Dried Tomato Orzo Salad

I once Googled “How many pastas are there?” and was given an answer of 350 pastas. That seems a bit on the short end to me. I feel like I have that many pasta options just in my local grocery store these days! The point is that if you are just sticking with your normal few favorites, you are probably missing out.

I’m always surprised that more people don’t use orzo so here’s my latest plea to get you to purchase and make some of what is quickly becoming one of my favorite pasta shapes. I like it because it’s flexible enough to serve with sauce, like spaghetti, but also works great in pasta salads, like this sun-dried tomato orzo salad.

This is a fast recipe, but the flavors are BIG. The key to making it work is to find the jars of sun-dried tomatoes in oil and use the tomatoes AND the oil in the jar for the pesto.

Sun-Dried Tomato Orzo Salad

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Yield

Serves 6.

Prep Time

15 mins

Cook Time

10 mins

Total Time

30 mins

I don’t think you could pack any more flavor into a pasta salad. A great side dish or a really nice weekday lunch option.

Ingredients

16 oz. orzo pasta, cooked, drained and rinsed

1 cup reserved pasta water (might not use all of it)

8 oz. sun-dried tomato in oil

1 lemon, juice only

1 clove garlic

1/3 cup walnuts

3-4 oz. Parmesan cheese, shredded

3-4 oz. Fresh arugula

Salt and pepper

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Directions

1. Cook orzo pasta according to instructions in salted water. When pasta is al dente, reserve some of the pasta cooking water, drain and rinse the pasta with cold water.
2. In a small food processor, combine the jarred sun-dried tomatoes plus any oil in the jar, garlic, lemon juice, and walnuts. Pulse until mixture is in a rough paste.
3. Stir sun-dried tomato mixture into the orzo. If the mixture seems dry, add pasta water by the 1/4 cup until it smooths out.
4. Finally, fold in fresh arugula and parmesan cheese. Taste and season with salt and pepper to your liking.

Serve at room temp or chilled. Leftover pasta salad will keep great for 4-5 days. If you are storing for more than 24 hours, leave out the arugula until you are eating it so it doesn’t get too wilted.

Sun-Dried Tomato Orzo Salad

Here’s that orzo stuff!

That orzo.

This pasta cooks pretty fast so keep an eye on it. If you overcook it it’ll get really mushy. No good!

Once it’s cooked, reserve some of the pasta water and then drain and rinse the pasta to stop the cooking.

One of my fave pastas.

Meanwhile, the pesto for this is embarrassingly easy. Grab an 8 oz. jar of the sun-dried tomatoes in oil and add the entire jar (plus oil) to a food processor with nuts, garlic, and lemon.

Quick SD Pesto.

Pulse that up and you are in business!

All set.

Stir the sun-dried tomato pesto in with the orzo. If it seems dry at all, add reserved pasta water by the 1/4 cup until it smooths out. The sauce should barely coat all the pasta.

Then fold in some fresh baby arugula. This works best if the pasta isn’t hot as that will just completely wilt the arugula. Room temperature is good.

Pasta should be room temp!

Don’t forget the parm. Lots of parm!

Lotsa parm!

Season this thing with salt and pepper to your liking and you’re in business. It works great as a hearty side dish or a weekday lunch option!

The pasta itself stores really nicely. One tip though… if you are planning on storing it for longer than a day or two, I’d recommend NOT adding the arugula until you are ready to eat it because it’ll just wilt and get sad.

If you’re like me, you love a good pasta salad and especially an orzo pasta salad! This one checks all the boxes!