20-Minute Orzo Pesto Salad
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This Orzo Pesto Salad is the perfect summer pasta salad. Orzo tossed with pesto sauce, juicy cherry tomatoes, tangy Kalamata olives, and mozzarella cheese. On the table in 20 minutes!
We love a good pesto sauce for its ability to pull together a meal in minutes. For more pesto inspiration, check out our Pesto Chicken Tortellini Salad and our Tortellini Caprese Salad.
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Why Make This Recipe
- 20-Min Meal: Only 6 ingredients and done in barely longer than it takes to cook the pasta!
- Easy Summer Side: This recipe shows off summer-ripe tomatoes and basil. The perfect potluck side dish!
- Delicious Flavors: The combination of mediterranean flavors in this dish will have you making this on repeat.
🥗 Ingredients
- Orzo pasta: We love an orzo pasta salad—it’s just so spoonable! But you can replace with a different kind of pasta if you prefer. Try a whole-wheat pasta or a gluten-free pasta too!
- Cherry tomatoes: While this dish is amazing with in-season, ripe summer tomatoes, you can also usually find decent cherry tomatoes year-round. Feel free to replace with full-size tomatoes if you have some ripe ones around!
- Olives: We love a classic Greek kalamata olive in this recipe, but feel free to replace with your favorite type of olive.
- Mozzarella Cheese: Bocconcini or ciliegine are perfect for this recipe, as these are small mozzarella balls. But you can also buy a large ball of fresh mozzarella and chop it into pieces.
- Pesto: If you have fresh basil, making your own pesto is easy to do. Try these recipes for Simple Lemon Basil Pesto and Lemony Ramp Pesto. Or change it up by trying a Sun Dried Tomato Pesto instead. Storebought pesto of any kind works too!
🥣 Step-by-Step Instructions
Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add 8 ounces orzo pasta and cook according to package directions. While orzo is cooking, rinse 1 pint of cherry tomatoes and pat dry, then slice in half.
Drain 1 cup kalamata olives, and slice in half.
Pull a small handful of basil leaves off their stems, and stack together. Roll up into a tube, and slice into thin ribbons.
If your mozzarella balls are larger than ½-inch in diameter, cut into small bite-sized pieces. You will need 8 ounces total.
Reserve ¼ cup of cooking liquid, then drain orzo when tender. Rinse well, then pour orzo back into saucepan.
Stir in ½ cup pesto and extra cooking liquid (if needed to keep the sauce creamy).
Stir in mozzarella, tomatoes, and olives.
Transfer to a serving bowl or platter to serve, and garnish with basil. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
🧐 Recipe FAQs for Orzo Pesto Salad
Orzo is a rice-shaped pasta also known as “risoni”. It is delicious in soup as well as pasta dishes. It works in a cold pasta salad, like this Orzo Salad with Black Beans or this Summer Orzo Salad, but it also works in a warm pasta dish like this Creamy Orzo Chicken with Mushrooms.
Yes, you can make this a day or two ahead of time. Store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. We recommend waiting to garnish with the basil leaves until you are ready to serve, so that they stay fresh. If the pesto pasta sauce dries out a bit, toss it with a little more pesto before serving, or add a small amount of water or olive oil and stir.
In general, we don’t recommend freezing pasta, since the texture really suffers when it is defrosted and then reheated.
In this recipe, we recommend you do rinse it, as that will stop the cooking process. If you don’t rinse your orzo, it can easily get a little overcooked and mushy. That said, in some recipes, orzo is used to create a risotto-like texture. In that case, you would not rinse your orzo.
👩🍳 Expert Tips for Orzo Pesto Pasta
Don’t forget to salt your cooking water—it adds flavor to the pasta, which in turn improves the flavor of the entire dish.
Wondering why we reserve some of the cooking liquid before draining the pasta? That cooking liquid is packed with starch. It helps to build a creamy sauce around the pasta if the pesto alone is not enough.
Now that you’ve made this delicious orzo salad recipe, what to serve it with? This is a fantastic side dish for grilled fish or chicken. You can also grill or roast shrimp, and toss them directly into the salad to make a full meal of it.
If you want to stick with a fully vegetarian meal, you could add protein by throwing in a can of white beans, or by adding some Crispy Tofu Cubes. You could also serve it with a soup like this Ginger Carrot Soup or this Cold Melon Soup.
Want to serve this as part of a BBQ menu? It's fantastic next to anything on the grill. Or, try it with these delicious Slow Cooker Pulled Pork sandwiches.
Got extra pesto leftover? Combine with just a couple more ingredients and make this delicious Pesto Salad Dressing.
With the combination of basil, tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella cheese, this is almost a caprese orzo salad. If you love those flavors, try some of our other caprese recipes like these Caprese Crêpes and this Burrata Caprese with Peaches.
Other Delicious Pasta Recipes
If you love pasta as much as we do, you’ll want to check out some of our other favorite pasta recipes. Try this traditional Taco Pasta Salad recipe for more Summer BBQ vibes. Or try one of these:
If you try this Orzo Pesto Salad recipe, we would love to hear from you! Please rate this recipe and leave a comment below—your feedback is invaluable to us.
And please follow along on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook or subscribe to our newsletter. We’d love to inspire you with more delicious, healthy, and seasonal recipes!
📖 Recipe
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Orzo Pesto Salad
Ingredients
- 8 ounces orzo pasta
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- 1 cup kalamata olives (about 4 ½ ounces)
- 8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese bocconcini or ciliegine preferred
- Small handful of fresh basil to garnish
- ½ cup pesto (4 ounces)
- Kosher salt to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.
- Add orzo and cook according to package directions.
- While orzo is cooking, rinse cherry tomatoes and pat dry, then slice in half.
- Drain olives, and slice in half.
- If your mozzarella balls are larger than ½-inch in diameter, cut into small bite-sized pieces.
- Pull basil leaves off their stems, and stack together. Roll up into a tube, and slice into thin ribbons.
- Reserve ¼ cup of cooking liquid, then drain orzo when tender.
- Rinse well, then pour orzo into a large mixing bowl.
- Stir in pesto and extra cooking liquid (if needed to keep the sauce creamy).
- Stir in mozzarella, tomatoes, and olives.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Transfer to a serving bowl or platter to serve, and garnish with basil.
Notes
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. We recommend waiting to garnish with the basil leaves until you are ready to serve, so that they stay fresh. If the pesto pasta sauce dries out a bit, toss it with a little more pesto before serving, or add a small amount of water or olive oil and stir. Expert Tips:
Don’t forget to salt your cooking water—it adds flavor to the pasta, which in turn improves the flavor of the entire dish.
Wondering why we reserve some of the cooking liquid before draining the pasta? That cooking liquid is packed with starch. It helps to build a creamy sauce around the pasta if the pesto alone is not enough.
Nutrition
Instagram Users: Now that you've made this orzo with pesto and tomatoes recipe, tag us @vanillabeancuisine or #vanillabeancuisine because we’d love to see your results!
More About Molly
Cooking healthy(ish) meals with seasonal ingredients is my passion. Trained as a French pastry chef, I spent over 10 years as a personal chef. Here you'll find well-tested recipes that you and your family will love!
