This quick and easy Roasted Cherry Tomato Orzo Pasta Salad can be enjoyed all summer long. Orzo combined with sweet roasted cherry tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, herbs and fresh parmesan cheese.
It’s a break out moment for the blog today with the very first orzo recipe! What? Okay, so here’s the thing, I’ve never found it in the supermarkets around here until recently. I know right? If you are just tuning in to my blog, we live in southern Spain. And sometimes there are well know common ingredients that you might all have access to, that I just can’t ever find. So, when I finally found this a few weeks back, I knew I had to make something to share on the blog.
And with it being just about summer, a pasta salad seemed like the perfect recipe to make and share.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups orzo
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- 1/3 cup sun dried tomatoes roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese finely grated
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- small bunch of fresh chopped parsley
REMEMBER, The full recipe and instructions is always found at the end of the post in the recipe card.
Instructions
- Preheat oven – Preheat oven to 375 degrees f/190 degrees c.
- Roast tomatoes – Add the cherry tomatoes to a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil, add garlic and salt. Roast for about 20 minutes. Remove from oven.
- Cook orzo – Meanwhile, cook the orzo al dente, about 6 minutes. Remove from water and drain well.
- Combine all ingredients – In a large salad bowl combine the orzo, roasted cherry tomatoes, parmesan cheese, oregano and chopped parsley. Stir well.
- Serve – This salad can be served immediately or can be refrigerated and served cold.
Recipe Tips
- Time saving tips – cook the orzo pasta while the tomatoes are roasting. It only takes 6 minutes to cook this type of pasta, so you can easily have it cooked and ready for when the tomatoes come out of the oven.
- Cook pasta al dente – orzo will become mushy if you overcook it so be careful. I cooked this for exactly six minutes and it was perfect.
- Use sun dried tomatoes in oil – I find these give a much better flavour than the dried sun dried tomatoes.
substitutions for This Roasted Cherry Tomato Orzo pasta Salad
- Orzo pasta – since this is an orzo pasta salad, I would probably try to use orzo. But if don’t have any, you can use any smaller pasta for this recipe. Just keep in mind the end results will be different.
- Cherry tomatoes – these are perfect for roasting and give this summer salad a wonderful flavour. You can roast bell peppers in their place if you prefer the flavour.
- Sun dried tomatoes – if you are not keen on the flavour, you can omit all together.
- Parmesan cheese – this brings the whole salad together with a wonderful rich flavour. You could substitute Gouda or Havarti.
- Herbs – I used fresh chopped parsley, but basil would give a wonderful flavour to this pasta salad.
Frequently Asked Questions
Orzo is pasta made from semolina flour. Although it looks similar to rice in size and shape, it is pasta.
Although this looks similar to rice in appearance, it tastes just like pasta. It can be very deceiving as it’s tiny like rice.
Orzo is commonly used in salads and soups.
Roasted Cherry Tomato Orzo Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups orzo
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- 1/3 cup sun dried tomatoes roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese finely grated
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- small bunch of fresh chopped parsley
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees f/190 degrees c. Add the cherry tomatoes to a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil, add garlic and salt. Roast for about 20 minutes. Remove from oven.
- Meanwhile, cook the orzo al dente, about 6 minutes. Remove from water and drain well.
- In a large salad bowl combine the orzo, roasted cherry tomatoes, parmesan cheese, oregano and chopped parsley. Stir well.
- This salad can be served immediately or refrigerated and served later.
Thanks For Stopping by & Hope To See You soon!
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