Parmesan Herbed Orzo

Tonight I made orzo I found on Foodnetwork.com as a side dish to go along with dinner. Orzo is a new pasta for me still and I'm trying to find few great ways to serve it, so having it with parmesan sure sounded promising! I skipped the onion since no one in my family is a raw onion fan, and we aren't too crazy about a lot of fresh parsley either, so I used some dried instead. I thought that the orzo was somewhat boring and I ended up adding a ton of extra parmesan and garlic powder to doctor it up. I know since I omitted some of the most flavorful ingredients used in this dish the boringness was my fault, so I cannot blame the recipe. Regardless, the orzo tasted fine, but it did not call out to me as anything extraordinary, so I probably won't make this dish again exactly as written - I'll have to add some more flavorful substitutes next time.

Parmesan Herbed Orzo

Serves 4

2 1/2 cups orzo

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 cup chopped red onion

1/4 cup freshly chopped parsley leaves

1 lemon, zested and juiced

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. Cook orzo as directed on package.

2. In a large bowl, toss together orzo with remaining ingredients. Can be served warm or chilled.