Author Archives: Jenna

Parmesan Orzo with Asparagus

I was immediately inspired by this recipe from Tasty Kitchen. I’d only had orzo once before in my life, and it was in a very fancy dining room at Indiana University called the Tudor Room. I associate orzo with elegance, and the thought of making such an mahvellous little dish in only 20 minutes was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. Add to that my love of asparagus and garlic, and you understand that it was quite simply meant to be!

Ingredients

(Serves 4)

1/2 lb orzo pasta
1 bunch asparagus
Zest from 1 lemon
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup pasta water
2 cloves garlic
4 TBS olive oil, divided
Salt and pepper, to taste

Boil up some salted water, and cook the orzo until it’s al dente.

My package said it would take 9 minutes for al dente pasta, and it was right. Before draining it, measure out some pasta water . . .

. . . and set it aside.

In the meantime, snap the tough ends off the asparagus, and chop it up into 2 inch lengths.

Heat up 2 TBS of the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. When hot, add the asparagus . . .

. . . and cook for about 8 minutes, until crisp tender.

For some reason I always want to punch myself in the face after using the descriptor ‘crisp tender,’ but I can think of no other phrase that sums up that ideal quality of the perfectly cooked vegetable so precisely. At least no concise phrase–we could always go with ‘not mushy/schmooshy but not undercooked either, slightly bitey but not tough, with a soft crunch, but by ‘soft’ I don’t mean ‘soggy’ and by ‘crunch’ I don’t mean like a potato chip.’

Anyway, make sure to season the asparagus with salt and pepper as it cooks.

Set the cooked asparagus aside.

At this point, I used the same skillet to cook up a couple steaks.

A little more prep, and we’re ready to get this served up. Locate the nearest pair of man-hands, and kindly request that they grate up mountains of Parmesan.

More! More! I said ‘mountains,’ not ‘one lonely hillside’!

That’s better. Thank you, man-hands.

Zest the lemon:

Pause to inhale the wonderful tangy smell of that golden pile. Mmmm.

Finally, put the garlic through a garlic press or mince it up really, really finely.

Now it’s just a matter of throwing everything together. Return the cooked orzo to the pot. Stir in the Parmesan, garlic, lemon zest, 2 remaining tablespoons of olive oil, asparagus, and pasta water.

Add plenty of salt and pepper, to taste. Et voilà, mon petit chou-chou!

You don’t mind if I call you my ‘little chou-chou’, do you?

Great. I didn’t think so.

Serve with fish, steak, chicken . . .

. . . or alone!

Some shrimp stirred in wouldn’t be bad either, now that I think about it.

Load on the extra Parmesan, if you so desire.

Woohoo! The Tudor Room no longer has a monopoly on my orzo experience.

Click here for printer-friendly version: Parmesan Orzo with Asparagus

Splashing in the city

Downtown Chicago in the summer is not just the place where Chicagoans in business attire ascend tall buildings to their office jobs, or the place where sweaty tourists oggle the skyscrapers and lug around large cameras. Or even the place where a sweaty Jenna oggles the skyscrapers and lugs around her large camera, though that’s been known to happen every few weeks.

It also hosts a summertime tidal wave of kids who come to this fountain to cool off. Set at the base of Millenium Park, it may be called ‘Crown Fountain’ . . . but I choose to call it Freako Fountain. Those tower-tall faces are just a little freako.

Every so often, the (blinking and breathing) larger-than-life faces purse their lips into a big ‘O’ and water spouts out from the wall. Stampedes of children run towards the waterfall with squeals and shouts, and chaos reigns until the face resumes its normal benign expression and the water is cut off.

Last year I snapped some pictures of a seriously cute cutie-pie right about this time.

Cutie-pies, you’ll be pleased to know, are in no shortage this year either. Like this little crawling one.

Or this gleeful little runner.

Oh my! There are two!

The matching shorts! The rounded bellies! The diapers peeking out! The springy halos of brown curls! These two just kill me.

There was a small blond one that made me feel those baby-snatching impulses . . . again. You’re going to get tired of hearing about that real soon. I’m just sayin.’

Happy summer, everyone! And please make a water angel if you get the chance!