Friday Pasta~ Greek-Style Garlic Shrimp & Orzo

Apr 28, 2012 by pearsonsprogress    2 Comments    Posted under: food, photos, recipes

Friday’s is the day I make pasta with the these 2 goals in mind:

1. to try new recipes
2. use the pasta I have in my pantry… which is still considerable.

This week I made this really tasty dish with orzo a small pasta and it was super yummy and it came together very fast. I made substitutions because I wanted to use up what I already have in the house to keep my expenses down.  Living in Spain, I would use this recipe as a 1st plate before the meat course, but it could easily be the main dish. I didn’t serve it with anything else but garlic bread would be nice or even a salad.

Greek-Style Garlic Shrimp & Orzo

Serves 4 main dishes or 8 as a 1st plate

Ingredients:

¼ cup olive oil

1 small red onion ( I used a yellow onion)

1 teaspoons  crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted & chopped (I used regular black olives which were pitted but I tossed in whole)

2 teaspoons of lemon zest

juice of ¼  lemon

2 Tablespoon chopped fresh oregano leaves ( I used 1 teaspoon of dried)

6 cloves of garlic, minced (I used 4)

2/3 box of orzo pasta ( I used 250 grams)

1/3 cup of dry white wine

1 pint of cherry tomatoes

2 Tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley

1 lb of  small shrimp, deveined, peeled & tales removed ( I bought a frozen bag of small cooked shrimp and added it frozen)

8 oz of feta cheese

Cook the orzo as directed on the package in salted water until al dente, drain & reserve.

Heat the ¼ cup of olive oil , then add the onions, red pepper flakes and garlic. Cook for 2 min, then add the shrimp and cook for another minute more. Add the cherry tomatoes, parsley, olives and oregano, lemon zest, juice of  ¼ lemon & white wine and season with salt & pepper. Cook until the shrimp is  heated through.

Drizzle a bit of olive oil on the orzo to keep it from sticking in a serving bowl. Top with the shrimp mixture & crumble the feta cheese on top.

* I got this recipe from a Rachael Ray cook book I own.

Tags: garlic, Greek style pasta, orzo

2 Comments + Add Comment

• 
  john pearson April 28, 2012 at 4:52 am

  Orzo is like eating little pasta pills. (Who could object to that idea?) It’s actually very tasty and allows the consumer to avoid Italian SOC syndrome (Sauce On Chin) which is the direct and [mostly] unavoidable effect of a hanging sauce coated spaghetti or fettuccini strand on a diner’s fork.

  I think it’s used commonly in soups and so, of course, one would want to use a spoon to eat it and that’s what I did. I’m not real sure of the proscriptive “etiquette” on the spoon approach but, it worked for me. (and, of course, etiquette is probably french so maybe we don’t really need as much of that stuff as some people think… )

  The Greek-Style Garlic Shrimp & Orzo dish was simply wonderful. Ahhhhh. I tried to control myself and actually ate only one plate of that yummmy combo for lunch… However, I have to admit, later in the day, that afternoon, when I might have eaten a small cake or pastry of some sort with a PM cup of tea, what happened?…, instead… I simply dished up another portion o the orzo goodness and gobbled it down cold. Wow, what flavor, shrimp and feta cheese somehow compliment each other! Simply delightful and since it’s actually low-cal and classified as an “Official” Health-Food, it was actually much better for me than some obviously high-calorie gooey sweet.

  This is a SUPER side dish but also mostly, I think, a full single-plate main course. I recommend it to anyone who likes the ingredients because the dish as a whole is far greater than the sum of the individual parts. (also, I recommend it be used, often, as a pastry replacement…)

  ORZO HEALTH NOTES

  Orzo is basically composed of wheat flour or durum flour and water, with lots of B vitamins and Iron. Note that one serving of enriched orzo pasta contains about 10 percent of your recommended daily intake of iron. So, by simple orzo-math multiplication… to get your full iron requirement, eat 10 times that single serving amount! [When we go back and visit the good ol USA we have noticed that many Americans are obviously really good at orzo math…]

  Reply
  • 
    pearsonsprogress April 28, 2012 at 11:31 am

    yeah right… the ultimate health food…it actually is not that high in calories and has protein, carbs and veg…. all in one dish. sweet!

    Reply