Summer Vegetable Orzo with White Pesto

Recipe submitted by guest, Fran Wescott. www.franwescott.com

This is a malleable recipe. Do all the things, be as fancy as you want, or not. But however you treat this – whatever spin you put on it – I find that the heart of the recipe is an appreciation of light, creamy, zesty summer abundance.

LOTS of room for variation with the pesto itself: you can use whatever herbs are fresh in your garden or store; you can use more or less garlic, more or less lemon, and you can add nuts if you want (I love walnuts in this). The white pesto is about using the ricotta as a carrier/vehicle for the other flavors you put in there – a creamy suspension, as it were.

Also, the instructions here are a little fancy (do we really need to drain grated zucchini and squash in a clean dish towel?...Probably not, but it feels fancy to have a clean kitchen towel and to devote it to such a high-falutin purpose. And theoretically, if zucchini and squash are properly drained/dried it’ll give you a nice caramelization when you sauté it. Theoretically). But anyway – this recipe is a good starting point.

Summer Vegetable Orzo with White Pesto

Feeds 4 (easily) as a main, 6 as a side

Takes about 40-ish minutes (including prep)

All measurements approximate – some more than others. The only “must”: well-salted water for boiling the orzo. DO NOT UNDERSALT THE WATER, or else what a waste of a gorgeous pasta dish, right?

Ingredients

For the pasta part:

• 2 cups uncooked orzo

• 1 cup grated zucchini

• 1 cup grated yellow squash

• ½ cup small dice onion (your favorite – Vidalia? Yellow?)

For the white pesto part:

• 1 cup-ish ricotta

• Zest of one lemon (measure it with your heart)

• 3-ish cloves garlic, mashed into a paste with salt

• Chopped fresh dill (a ton – however you measure a “ton”)

• ¼ cup-ish of freshly grated Parmigiana Reggiano (the good stuff – you’ll taste it)

• Freshly-ground black Pepper

• A glug of extra virgin (fruity) olive oil

At the end:

• Additional Parmigiana for topping

• Squeeze of lemon for finish? (or not – whatever you think)

• A drizzle of super-good fruity EVOO

• Maybe more salt? (But don’t add til the end, cuz the garlic paste and the Parmigiana will add a fair amount of salt AND you’ll be adding to orzo that was cooked in well-salted water, … RIGHT?)

Instructions

1. Grate the zucchini and squash. Wrap tightly in a clean kitchen towel and drain thoroughly.

2. While the zucchini and squash drain/dry on the towel, put the garlic through a press and then mash it into a paste with some coarse Kosher salt. (You can use a mortar and pestle or the back of a spoon on a cutting board)

3. Finely chop the fresh dill.

4. Zest the lemon.

5. Combine the ricotta, the garlic, the dill, the lemon zest, the Parmigiana, and a drizzle of EVOO and taste. Add ground black pepper to taste. Then set aside the ricotta mixture to let it “bloom”.

6. Boil a pot of well-salted water and cook orzo until about a minute from being done. RIGHT BEFORE DRAINING (adding emphasis here cuz I ALWAYS freaking forget), reserve about a cup of the starchy, salty pasta water.

[FANCY ALERT – this next step could be done in a separate pan, but who wants to clean TWO pots when you might use just one? You do you. I’m lazy – this is the one-pot approach]

7. While the pasta drains in the colander, put the pot back on the heat and throw in about a Tablespoon of EVOO in the bottom of the hot pan. Put in the onion and squash and saute on high heat to see if you can get a little caramelization going.

8. Then, after no more than about two minutes, tops – lower the heat to low, put the cooked orzo, the white pesto and a quarter cup of the pasta water in the pot with the zucchini and stir together.

9. Adjust the salt and pepper, add a squeeze of lemon if desired, use a little more pasta water to keep it from completely setting up, or even add more ricotta. Mess with it until it looks like you want it to look.

10. Plate it with additional EVOO (just a drizzle), Parmigiana, pepper, even a fresh dill sprig (cuz we’re fancy today).

Serve as a main with some roast asparagus on top (I like mine almost burned – that salty, caramelized asparagus flavor is FIRE, as the young people say). Serve as a side tucked under your protein so that your orzo can catch some of the yummy juices from your chicken or fish or whatever. Mangiare, y’all!

Recipe submitted by guest, Fran Wescott. www.franwescott.com