Cooking with Love
with Gianna Conte (Jan)
Cold refreshing Orzo salad
Looking for a chilled dinner idea?
Look through your refrigerator and pick out a few items you would put in a salad, e.g., cucumbers, chopped tomatoes, red onion, peppers?
Now, pick out a hard cheese, e.g., mozzarella, provolone, feta, bleu cheese, cheddar?
Now, make your favorite salad dressing. Oh, I forgot, you must use Orzo pasta!!
Directions:
Boil 1/2 lb of Orzo pasta, drained.
Prepare salad dressing. Pour over boiled and drained orzo. Place in the refrigerator.
Chop up your favorite salad vegetables, except the lettuce. Chop up 1/4 lb cheese.
Remove the Orzo from refrigerator, you'll notice all the dressing has been obsorbed by the pasta.... that's a good thing.
Add all the chopped vegetables and toss. Sprinkle with chopped cheese. Add some fresh basil leaves, or parsley or even mint.
Toss and serve as a side dish to any kind of grilled meat or fish. Or, you can make it as a meal by adding cooked chicken strips.
Delicious change from mayo salads.
Yummy!
Feeling the heat.....make something chilled for dinner!
