Family Favorite: Orzo Casserole
One of Tom's favorite homemade dishes is orzo casserole, my riff on a baked orzo dish created by celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis. Her recipe calls for fontina cheese, which I used dutifully for a while, until I realized (1) I didn't think fontina was all that special and (2) my family didn't eat the leftover fontina cheese and it tended to get wasted. I use Gruyere instead. It's a flavorful, easy to grate cheese and leftovers are delicious on soda crackers!
Since today is his 25th birthday, he requested that I make it for dinner. Of course!
Today's cast. Yes, you are seeing three kinds of cheese, cream and butter. This is not at all diet-friendly.
This is a multi-pan, multi-tasking recipe. Have all your ingredients out on the counter and ready to go because once you start, you don't have the luxury to hunt around for the things you need. The chicken broth was added to a pot and brought to a boil. This is what your orzo will cook in.
In the meantime, the butter was added to a large frying pan on medium heat.
Finely chopped onion was added to that, along with a little salt to encourage the juices to release.
Roughly chopped white mushrooms are added to the onions and cooked till browned.
I grated the Gruyere and had it waiting for its turn.
The orzo was added to the boiling stock and cooked for about seven minutes, stirring occasionally. You want it just before it hits tender since it will be baked a little later on.
Parmesan cheese, panko and dried thyme were combined to create the topping.
The mushrooms have now cooked down and have browned edges.
In goes the wine. I used a red but the original recipe called for a Marsala. Make sure you scrape up all those lovely browned bits. The mixture was left at a fairly rapid boil to reduce it by half.
The cooked orzo absorbed almost all the stock.
I transferred the orzo into a large mixing bowl.
The mushrooms and onions turned a deep red from the wine. Using Marsala doesn't darken it up that much so if you don't like the color, find a good Marsala!
The mushroom mixture, Gruyere and mozzarella cheeses, cream, peas, salt and pepper were added to the orzo and folded to combine.
The mixture was smoothed into a greased 9x13 pan.
Then topped with the cheese-crumb-thyme mixture. The casserole is baked at 400F for about 25 minutes or until the topping is lightly browned and the mixture is bubbling.
Since today is his 25th birthday, he requested that I make it for dinner. Of course!
Today's cast. Yes, you are seeing three kinds of cheese, cream and butter. This is not at all diet-friendly.
This is a multi-pan, multi-tasking recipe. Have all your ingredients out on the counter and ready to go because once you start, you don't have the luxury to hunt around for the things you need. The chicken broth was added to a pot and brought to a boil. This is what your orzo will cook in.
In the meantime, the butter was added to a large frying pan on medium heat.
Finely chopped onion was added to that, along with a little salt to encourage the juices to release.
Roughly chopped white mushrooms are added to the onions and cooked till browned.
I grated the Gruyere and had it waiting for its turn.
The orzo was added to the boiling stock and cooked for about seven minutes, stirring occasionally. You want it just before it hits tender since it will be baked a little later on.
Parmesan cheese, panko and dried thyme were combined to create the topping.
The mushrooms have now cooked down and have browned edges.
In goes the wine. I used a red but the original recipe called for a Marsala. Make sure you scrape up all those lovely browned bits. The mixture was left at a fairly rapid boil to reduce it by half.
The cooked orzo absorbed almost all the stock.
I transferred the orzo into a large mixing bowl.
The mushrooms and onions turned a deep red from the wine. Using Marsala doesn't darken it up that much so if you don't like the color, find a good Marsala!
The mushroom mixture, Gruyere and mozzarella cheeses, cream, peas, salt and pepper were added to the orzo and folded to combine.
The mixture was smoothed into a greased 9x13 pan.
Then topped with the cheese-crumb-thyme mixture. The casserole is baked at 400F for about 25 minutes or until the topping is lightly browned and the mixture is bubbling.
Let the casserole cool for about ten minutes before serving. Delish!
Here's the promised link:
Comments
Post a Comment