Orzo Pasta Salad and Grilled Summer Vegetables

An easy and good orzo pasta salad made with grilled vegetables, sun-blushed tomatoes and a simple herby lemon and olive oil dressing. This pasta salad can be eaten warm or cold and is great for summer lunches, picnics or BBQs.

We love grilled vegetables in the summer and usually serve them alongside steak chicken spiedini or fish, but they are also a great addition to pasta salad since they have so much flavour and can be grilled in bulk.

Grilled veg keeps well for up to 3 days, so while we prep dinner, we can grill some extra veg and throw them into a simple pasta salad for lunch throughout the week, which makes things easy.

What we love about this salad is that the flavour is so customisable from adding different herbs, veggies and sauces (we've noted some suggestions below), so it's never boring and suited to storing in the fridge for a few days.

See the full recipe below and enjoy!

Ingredient notes

• Grilled veg – We like to go with a mix of zucchini, eggplant and red pepper for a good mix of flavour. If you use 3 vegetables, go with ones that are small in size.
• Sun blushed tomatoes – also known as semi-dried tomatoes. They usually come marinated in garlic and herbs, so they add so much flavour. If you can't find these, you can use sun-dried tomatoes instead (jarred in oil), which should be easy to find.
• Fresh basil and dried oregano – We love staying simple with the herbs, but we have occasionally added fresh mint leaves to this, which adds a nice freshness.
• Orzo – also known as risoni, it's a rice-shaped small pasta shape that's suited to soups and salads. You can use another short pasta shape such as shells, penne or mezze maniche.

Don't rinse your pasta

We don't rinse pasta in cold water when making a pasta salad for a few different reasons.

1) You're washing away flavour, both salt and starch.

2) Hot water evaporates from pasta, but cold water doesn't, so you're left with extra wet pasta.

3) We find the flavours meld together better when the pasta is warm, and we always want more flavour.

Our tip is to drain the hot pasta and add it straight away to a large bowl with the dressing. Stir it to coat it in the olive oil, which will stop it sticking. Add the other ingredients and let it cool (or serve straight away).

Variations to try

• Add cheese – mozzarella is a great addition to a pasta salad, but only add it once the pasta has cooled.
• Add pesto – add even more flavour by stirring some pesto through it. Our favourites are basil pestoarugula pesto and sun-dried tomato pesto.
• Add meat – cured meats are a great addition, such as prosciutto or salami.
• Herbs – we sometimes add fresh mint leaves to this (a small handful), which adds freshness. Parsley would work well, too.
• Olives and capers – We always have both in our fridge to add extra flavour to dishes, and either one or both would be great.
• Raw vs grilled veg – grilled vegetables add so much flavour, they're sweeter and add a good smokiness from the grill. If you're looking for a crisper and fresh flavour, then ingredients such as cucumber, raw red onion, and fresh cherry tomatoes are great to use.

More summer salads to try

Pasta

Zucchini Shrimp Pasta Salad

Salads

Insalata di Riso (Italian Rice Salad)

Sides

Patate Apparecchiate (Sicilian Potatoes with Onions and Olives)

Salads

Cialledda (Southern Italian Bread Salad)

Ingredients

Makes 6 servings

• 1 cup (175g) orzo pasta ((risoni))
• 1 small eggplant (aubergine)
• 1 small zucchini (courgette)
• 1 long red pepper ((or small bell pepper))
• ½ cup (80g) sun blushed tomatoes (see notes)
• 1 cup fresh basil ((large handful))
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 cup (50g) olive oil (plus extra for grilling)
• 1 whole lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt flakes
• pepper

Method

1. Heat a ridged griddle pan or grill. Finely slice the pepper, eggplant and zucchini and lightly drizzle them in olive oil.

2. Grill the pepper first until charred and soft on both sides then transfer it to a plate and cover with plastic wrap (this helps to remove the skin later).

3. Grill the zucchini and eggplant until charred and soft on both sides then transfer them to a plate and sprinkle with salt. Set aside.

4. Bring a pot of water to a boil and salt it well. Add the orzo and cook until al dente.

5. Meanwhile, put ¼ cup (50g) olive oil, the juice of 1 whole lemon, ½ teaspoon of dried oregano, ½ teaspoon sea salt flakes and a pinch of black pepper in a large mixing bowl and whisk until combined and emulsified.

6. Once cooked, drain the orzo pasta and add it to the dressing while still hot. Stir to combine in the dressing.

7. Remove the plastic wrap from the peppers and peel as much of the skin off as possible (it should come off fairly easy). Roughly chop them and add them to the pasta.

8. Roughly chop the zucchini, eggplant and fresh basil and add them to the pasta alongside the sun-blushed tomatoes. Stir everything together until well combined. Taste for seasoning and add more salt or lemon to taste.

9. Serve warm or leave to cool.

Kitchen notes

• Tomatoes We buy sun-blushed tomatoes (semi-dried) in the deli section at our supermarket next to the olives, artichokes and other marinated vegetables. If you can't find them, then you can use sun-dried tomatoes jarred in oil. Look for tomatoes marinated with garlic and herbs for more flavour.
• Peeling the pepper skin this is optional, but often, the skin can come loose after grilling and can give the salad a funny texture, so we prefer to peel it.
• Storage the pasta salad will keep well in the fridge for 3-4 days, although the pasta will start to soften the longer it's left. Bring the salad to room temperature before serving for the best flavour. We find the lemon mellows after a day, so we like to add an extra squeeze of fresh lemon before serving.