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Lasagna
Regina Schrambling
9056 ratings with an average rating of 5 out of 5 stars
9,056
4 hours
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In a mixing bowl, combine half the garlic with 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, 1 teaspoon red-pepper flakes and 1 teaspoon salt. Add the shrimp, coating it well.
In a large Dutch oven or heavy skillet with a tight-fitting lid, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil over medium. Add the tomatoes, season with salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until they start to blister, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the remaining garlic, 1 teaspoon oregano and ½ teaspoon red-pepper flakes, and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Add the orzo, stirring until lightly toasted, about 1 minute, then add the crushed tomatoes and 1 cup water. Season with salt, and use a wooden spoon to scrape up anything stuck on the bottom.
Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover and cook until just shy of al dente, stirring occasionally to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom, about 10 minutes. Add the marinated shrimp on top, cover and cook until they are cooked through and the orzo is al dente, 4 to 6 minutes more.
Remove from the heat, divide among plates and finish with black pepper, feta and parsley. Serve with more red-pepper flakes, if desired.
This was just fine to me but not worth a repeat. I tried it bc I love orzo and had a bunch of feta in the fridge. Decent flavor but very very tomatoey and too saucy for the orzo. I followed the directions to a T and it ended up feeling like it was just mostly tomato sauce. Maybe try with a more robust pasta like rigatoni or fusilli. Agree with another reviewer that it didn’t feel like a complete meal. The shrimp felt lost in the sauce.
We loved this! I doubled the garlic in both steps, used vegetable stock instead of water, and just before the shrimp was done I removed the lid, added the feta and threw under the broiler for a minute or two to finish. Came out wonderful.
Don't add water. Others have recommended stock, and that sounds good. I added a can of tomato sauce in addition to the crushed tomato, and it was very rich.
After reading reviews, I used the recipe as a base and jazzed it up a bit and found it quite good. Doubled the garlic and amped up the spices, added an extra 1/3 c. orzo, used veggie broth instead of water, added a bunch of chopped parsley to the pot at the end, and several healthy twists of black pepper. I could see olives or capers and a splash of red wine working well too. A great easy one-pot meal!
This was a pretty decent, cozy dish! I ended up adding diced shallot when you add garlic to the roasting tomatoes, and added a good glug of red wine to the dish when simmering.
Love how easy it is. We thought it needed more orzo than the recipe calls for, so next time...!
This was good, but I agree with others that it's just lacking something to make it more hearty. I added a handful of pitted kalamata olives if you wanna up the Greek/Mediterranean factor a bit. Any olives would do, it seems.
All cooks now raise your right hand and say, "I will not use a recipe where you cook pasta all the way in a sauce". It makes the sauce a starchy goo that you cannot season or moisture your way into something edible. Cooking pasta separate and finishing in a sauce is the way to go and I will never make that mistake again. (I thought Orzo would be different, being so small.)
Delicious! Cooked the cherry tomatoes down until they broke down, more like 20 mins. Then omitted the can of tomatoes
I love the old Pierre Franey 60-minute Gourmet version of this Greek classic. It's a little more complicated but still easily 60 minutes or less, depending on how efficiently you can peel shrimp!
So you add the tomatoes... twice?
-Less sauce or more orzo -Needs bread for dipping
Realllllly wishing I read the comments before making. I questioned the amount of canned tomato/water but went with the recipe. Looks like the shrimp are swimming. I added 6oz baby spinach to the pot in hopes that might help the situation. : /
This dish makes more sense if you add a poached egg on top of each portion. Then it eats like a Shakshuka with shrimp and orzo, which isn’t bad at all!
I made this for a dinner party for 6. Read all other notes and did my own thing. Started with garlic more oil and two chopped sweet onion, added a tin of anchovies and a half can of tomatoe paste with lemon pepper and oregano sprigs. Heirloom grapes tomatoes and diced from can. Olives capers. The secret was a heavy pour of ouzo. Cooked orzo separate with power greens. Outstanding. Season wonderfully. Makes a world of difference
It was fine, but not as great as other recipes. I agree with another note I saw that it was too tomatoey, and the orzo and shrimp were overwhelmed.
Wish I had read the suggestions that people left. Too too much tomato, one 15 Oz can would have been fine.
I made half for myself - dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow. Only change I made was to sauté some onion before adding the cherry tomatoes and upping the garlic based on other reviews. It was good - not mind-blowing, but a perfectly good weeknight meal. The only trick is timing the orzo to not be overdone when the shrimp are fully cooked and that depends entirely on the size of the shrimp (which should be specified in the recipe). I used 26 count and stirred them in so 4 minutes was perfect.
I’ve made this a few times now, using shrimp stock in place of water (made with the shrimp shells). This made a big difference for me. Usually tomato sauces are too acidic for me, but the shrimp stock added some depth that helped cut the straight acidity. Also, adding shallot, white wine, and sliced Kalamata olives to the dish were good reviewer tips!
Once again, New York Times, you give us a great recipe, but the steps don’t make sense. There is no way that the orzo would toast on top of the wet tomatoes. I followed this recipe out the window, but I toasted the orzo in my heavy pot first, and then removed it and continued with the step where I blistered the tomatoes and added the garlic. I also used a small can of fire roasted tomatoes from Trader Joe’s, because that proportion of liquid makes much more sense to me.
It was delicious and easy. But needs to be watched carefully to avoid a saucy starchy mess. From experience I knew not to cook the orzo the full 10 minutes before adding the shrimp. The box says 9-10 minutes for al dente, and the shrimp needs to cook too. Start adding the shrimp around minute 7-8.
Add spinach
I agree with other comments … way too much tomato sauce. I used the whole pint of grape tomatoes but cut the tinned tomatoes in half and used diced tomatoes not crushed. I would recommend larger shrimps for this recipe. It was good even without the feta and parsley 🥲
Largely followed the recipe and didn’t have a problem with soupy-ness, I did cook down the cherry tomatoes for longer period, added a little white wine and also did chicken broth in lieu of water, and, as always, doubled down on the ajo :) DE-vine
Such a hit! Will be making again - thanks to other readers for their notes. I made the following changes: Doubled the garlic and spices Cooked orzo separately in chicken broth, used 1 cup of the starchy brothy cooking water and added it along with the tomato sauce (yes the orzo was a past al dente but I like it that way!) Added only about 1/2 cup of tomato Diced a block of feta, scattered on top, broiled on high until it started browning
Made this for dinner last night. I followed the recipe as written. Next time maybe I would add a little more orzo - like 1/4 cup as well as cut the shrimp into bite sized pieces before cooking but…that’s it. My family and I really enjoyed it.
Tasted great. A couple reviews in here certainly helped. I swapped vegetable broth for the water, put the pot under a broiler with the feta on top at the finish, and doubled the garlic. Also don’t be shy about the salt - it brings out the best in the tomatoes! Also used a toasted baguette to sop up the sauce (if you love carbs as much as my wife and I do).
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