What’s the best way to cook orzo?
“Orzo reminds me of being a child,” says Jacob Kenedy, chef/owner of Bocca di Lupo in London. “It’s very comforting, and you can eat it with a spoon.” It is perhaps first worth noting that in Italy the word orzo literally means “‘barley”, and the pasta we know as orzo more often goes by the name rosmarino (due to its likeness to a rosemary needle) or risoni (big rice). Here, we’re talking the pasta, which Kenedy uses as a substitute for both barley and rice, and says is particularly suited to soups and broths. For the latter, Feast’s Italian correspondent Rachel Roddy would look to Naples and a “really tasty, brothy soup with tomatoes and basil”. Gently sizzle some garlic in olive oil, then add tomatoes (“crush them with your hands”), basil and salt. Pour in water, add orzo and simmer until the pasta is soft. “Then plenty of cheese and pepper at the end, and you get this nice, thick soup.”
Orzo can also be treated like pilaf, which for Kenedy means melting a bit of butter, frying the pasta for a second, then adding “just the right amount of stock [chicken or fish] for it to absorb. That works really well.”
