Sun-Dried Tomato Orzo Salad

Sun-Dried Tomato Orzo Salad is easy and delicious. Tender pasta absorbs the great flavours of a garlicky, herby sun-dried tomato dressing, and is then mixed with sweet roasted red pepper, toasted pine nuts, Parmesan and fresh basil. Makes a wonderful lunch over rocket or spinach or as a side dish. Keeps for three days in the fridge and is great for parties, buffets, and BBQs too.

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I love the intense flavour of this easy and delicious pasta salad. A punchy dressing based on ultra tomatoey sun-dried tomatoes, garlic and oregano, tossed through cooked orzo pasta still slightly warm so it absorbs even more of the flavours. When the pasta’s cool, you add more good things. Roasted red pepper, a little red onion, toasted pine nuts, and fresh basil. To finish, optional but highly recommended, is Parmesan cheese. This gives great umami background flavour without making the salad overtly cheesy.

The result is a deeply savoury delight that will have you wondering how something so easy can possibly taste this good.

You can serve as a salad meal on its own or as one of a number of dishes at get togethers. I like it for lunch on a bed of peppery rocket or baby spinach with contrasting crunchy cucumber. Sun-Dried Tomato Orzo Salad will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days, making it great for lunch boxes too.

SUN-DRIED TOMATO ORZO SALAD

You’ll find ingredient amounts and full instructions in the recipe card at the end. But I recommend you read the whole of this post first for extra tips and step-by-step images to guide you.

INGREDIENTS

While you could use any little pasta shape for this salad, teeny orzo gives even more surface area to coat in the wonderful sun-dried tomato dressing. Called risoni in Italy (orzo actually means barley, its shape said to resemble a barley grain) it’s a common choice for soups as well as salads.

Purely to enhance its golden colour (it won’t affect the taste) I add a pinch of ground turmeric to the cooking water.

For the dressing you’ll need the following plus salt and pepper.

• Sun-dried tomatoes. Soft ones packed in oil.
• Extra virgin olive oil. I supplement it with a little oil from the sun-dried tomato jar.
• Red wine vinegar. For balancing acidity.
• Lemon juice. Adds a bright, fresh tang.
• Garlic. Adds to the punchy flavours.
• Dried oregano. One of those herbs I think is better dried than fresh.
• Sugar or other sweetener. I like a little to round out the savoury flavours, but you can leave out.
• Red pepper flakes/mild chilli flakes. For those of us who like a little heat, but entirely optional.

The rest of the salad ingredients are:

• Roasted red pepper. For convenience I use jarred. But if you want to prepare your own, I’ve given instructions in the Notes to the recipe card.
• Red onion. Just half a small one, finely chopped.
• Pine nuts. Toast them in a dry pan first for extra nutty flavour and crunch. Other nuts can be used e.g. almonds, hazelnuts.
• Parmesan cheese. Finely grate it yourself: don’t ever be tempted to buy the inferior ready grated stuff.
• Basil. Use whole small fresh leaves if you can. Cutting or tearing large ones can cause them to quickly blacken.

HOW TO MAKE SUN-DRIED TOMATO ORZO SALAD 

Because pasta soaks up flavours much better while it’s warm, your dressing needs to be ready when the pasta’s just cooked. If you can multitask then put the pasta on first and make the sun-dried tomato dressing while it cooks. If you’re less confident, make the dressing first, set it aside, then cook the pasta.

Make the dressing

Combine all the dressing ingredients in a screw-topped jar and shake. Alternatively, whisk in a bowl all the dressing ingredients except the sun-dried tomatoes, then stir them in. Give it a taste and tweak the seasoning, acidity or sweetness if necessary.

Cook the orzo

Tastes naturally vary as to how firm people like their pasta. For my Sun-Dried Tomato Orzo Salad, the pasta will soften a little more while it’s cooling in the dressing but will then firm up just a touch. Between 10 – 12 minutes rapidly boiling is about right for me.

When the orzo’s done to your liking, drain it in a sieve and briefly run through cold water from a tap. At this stage you want to cool it enough to stop more cooking, but not make it completely cold. Shake off as much excess water as you can, then tip the orzo into a serving bowl.

Now add the sun-dried tomato dressing and give everything a really good mix so every ‘grain’ of pasta is coated. Set aside until cold, in the fridge if it’s a warm day.

Finishing the salad

Finally, stir the remaining ingredients through the tomatoey pasta: the roasted red pepper, onion, toasted pine nuts, Parmesan, and basil. I like to then have a final taste and maybe add a little more black pepper or basil.

While you could now serve Sun-Dried Tomato Orzo Salad straight away, I think it’s much nicer if you leave it for 30 minutes or so. This allows all the flavours to meld beautifully. In fact, I’ve found the flavours keep improving over the next couple of days.

I made the salad you see in this post on a Thursday, and we finished it on the Saturday. If anything, it was even more delicious!

SERVING SUN-DRIED TOMATO ORZO SALAD

If want to leave the flavours to develop, then store the salad in an airtight container in the fridge. Remove 15 – 20 minutes before you want to eat to take the chill off and have it at its very best. To keep the basil from wilting too much, you could add it at this stage. However, even on day three I found the herb perfectly fine.

In our house, we tend to eat Sun-Dried Tomato Orzo Salad as an easy and delicious lunch. I like to serve it on a bed of leaves such as rocket or baby spinach with some diced cucumber for crunch.

But it makes a great side to meat or fish or served as one of a range of dishes for get-togethers and BBQs if you multiply it up. Leftovers make a great addition to lunch boxes too. If you want to increase the protein, try tossing in cooked cannellini beans or chickpeas when you combine the cooked pasta and tomato dressing.

I really hope you’ll try this easy and delicious pasta salad with its tangy tomato dressing, rich with garlic and herbs, sweet roasted red pepper, fresh basil plus the deeply savoury background flavour of Parmesan.

If you’ve made this recipe, I’d love to know what you thought. Do leave a comment and rating.

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Sun-Dried Tomato Orzo Salad

Tender rice-like pasta absorbs the great flavours of a garlicky, herby sun-dried tomato dressing, and is combined with sweet roasted red pepper, toasted pine nuts, Parmesan and fresh basil.

Makes a wonderful lunch over rocket or spinach or can be eaten as a side dish. Keeps for three days in the fridge and can easily be multiplied up for parties, buffets, and BBQs etc.

Please read the accompanying blog post before starting.

Course Main Course, Side Dish, Salad, Lunch, Pasta, Light Meal

Cuisine Italian, Italian-inspired

Keyword pasta, pasta salad

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 12 minutes

Total Time 32 minutes

Servings 2 as a lunch dish

Author Moorlands Eater

Ingredients

• 130 - 150 g dried orzo pasta
• salt (to taste)
• 1 tsp ground turmeric (optional: for colour only)

For the sun-dried tomato dressing

• 80 g sun-dried tomatoes (the type packed in oil, drained and roughly chopped)
• 60 ml (4 tbsp) extra virgin olive oil (15-30 ml/1-2 tbsp can be replaced with oil from the sun-dried tomatoes)
• 15 - 30 ml (1 - 2 tbsp) red wine vinegar
• 15 ml (1 tbsp) lemon juice
• 1 large clove garlic (finely chopped)
• 1 rounded tsp dried oregano
• ½ tsp red pepper flakes/mild chilli flakes (optional)
• 1 large pinch salt
• freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
• sugar to taste (optional)

Other salad ingredients

• 1 roasted red pepper: skinned, deseeded and roughly chopped (from a jar or see Recipe Notes below)
• ½ a small red onion (finely chopped)
• 30 g pine nuts (toasted in a dry frying pan)
• 1 - 2 handful/s basil leaves (left whole)
• 30 g Parmesan cheese, finely grated (optional but recommended)

Instructions

1. Make the sun-dried tomato dressing.

   Put all the dressing ingredients into a screw-topped jar and shake together.

   Tip: you may wish to start with the smaller amount of vinegar and half a teaspoon of sugar. Taste and add more of any ingredient if you think it needs it.

   Set aside while the pasta cooks, or you can make it while the pasta is cooking.

2. Cook the orzo pasta.

   Pour boiling water from a kettle into a roomy saucepan over high heat and season with salt according to your taste. Add the turmeric if using.

   When back up to the boil, pour in the orzo, stir once, then leave to bubble until tender (10 - 12 minutes).

   Drain in a sieve and run cold water from a tap through it, without making the pasta completely cold: the dressing will be absorbed better if the pasta is still warm, but you don't want it to continue cooking too much.

3. Drain excess water from the orzo and put in a serving bowl.

   Add the dressing and toss well to coat all the pasta.

   Set aside until cold.

4. Add all the other salad ingredients to the bowl and toss to combine.

   Can be served straight away, although leaving for 30 minutes will help meld the flavours.

5. If not eating straight away, store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

   Best brought back to room temperature before eating.

Recipe Notes

Roasted red pepper. For convenience, I use a jarred roasted pepper for this recipe. If you prefer to roast your own you can do this either under a grill at its highest setting, turning often, or in a very hot oven, turning a few times. When the peppers are lightly charred all over, transfer to a heatproof bowl, cover with a plate or similar and leave until cold. Discard the core, seeds and skin.

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