This dish manages to be concurrently spring-like and comforting, because of the extraordinary flavour from the pea pesto. Telling you to stir complete peas by way of orzo feels a bit an excessive amount of like nursery meals, however in case you are serving this to young children who’re amenable to pesto pasta (mine will not be), I’d recommend finely blitzing the pumpkin seeds earlier than including them to the pesto, as a result of they’re fairly giant items in any other case. Prime with seasonal asparagus and that is the right dinner to eat outside on a heat spring night.
Asparagus, pea and lemon orzotto
Prep 15 min
Cook dinner 15 min
Serves 2
Sea salt flakes
180g orzo
200g asparagus
50ml olive oil, plus 1 tbsp additional for the asparagus
180g podded recent peas, or frozen peas
50g pumpkin seeds
50g parmesan, grated (a vegetarian one, if want be)
Juice of ½ lemon
Convey a big pan of well-salted water to a boil, then tip within the orzo and prepare dinner for eight minutes, or till cooked by way of however nonetheless a bit al dente. Drain effectively, and reserve a mugful of the cooking water.
In the meantime, set a griddle pan on a excessive warmth. Toss the asparagus with a tablespoon of oil to coat, then grill for 2 minutes on all sides (you could want to do that in batches). Switch to a plate and scatter with some sea salt flakes.
In the meantime, blanch the peas by tipping them right into a bowl of boiling water, depart to steep for 2 minutes (or three minutes if utilizing frozen), then drain effectively. Tip the peas right into a meals processor, add 50ml oil, the pumpkin seeds and the grated parmesan, and blitz to a rough paste.
Stir three-quarters of the pea pesto by way of the drained orzo, including a few tablespoons of the pasta cooking water to loosen, if want be – you need the pasta to move gently throughout the plate, fairly than sit in a giant heap. Style and add lemon juice and salt as wanted (in case your pasta water was effectively salted to start with, you shouldn’t want a lot).
Divide the orzo between warmed shallow bowls, high with the remaining pea pesto and the griddled asparagus, and serve directly.
