One-Pan Zucchini-Pesto Orzo  Recipe (2024)

To me the execution and resultant product was a train wreck! It looked more like gruel than food and was a total turn off. Cook your orzo in boiling salted water. Drain set aside to al dente perfection. Sautee the onions and zucchini separately and then combine with orzo, season with salt and pepper and red pepper and lemon juice, add olive oil, lemon zest. Proceed with the mozz and tomatoes and mint. This preserves the integrity of ingredients and is much more appealing. Tastes good but...

I can not imagine cooking the orzo in the zucchini/onion mix - would it not become a sodden mess? It seems to make much more sense to cook the orzo in stock separately. Or am I too fastidious?

Tasty but should double the zucchini used.

was looking for a quick and tasty dinner and this was it! my garden is throwing me zuccs, tomatoes and mint. had some pesto in the freezer and dang, it was dinner. i thought i had some orzo in the pantry, but came up with another small grained greek pasta and substituted that. very wonderful!

Delicious. On timing, it says step 1 takes 10-12 minutes. Step 2 takes 10-14 minutes. So I’m at a loss as to how the whole recipe can take only 10 minutes.

I put mine in a ziplock bag and press the air out, then roll it into logs. Keeps for a year frozen.

This is a delicious summer meal! Per others' notes, I cooked the orzo, onions and zucchini separately. While the orzo cooked in one pot, I sauteed the onions with red pepper on medium heat in another pan, until soft but not browned. I removed the onions from the pan and sauteed the zucchini on medium-high 'til nice and brown, then added the onions, orzo and pesto to the pan with the zucchini to leverage the lovely caramelization from the veggies. Such a lovely combo of flavors!

I made this as written, with Marcella Hazens pesto. It is delicious. Summer on a plate, would not change a thing except next time I will double the recipe.

Need to fix the time. There is about 25 minutes on the stove after the time it takes to prep everything. But even those who claimed not to like zucchini enjoyed this — the zucchini hid in all that cheese and pesto.

I also found cooking the zucchini, onion and orzo together gave a mushy result that was not visually appealing. Will do the orzo separately next time and then combine. Otherwise yummy and easy to improvise with summer bounty.

So good! I agree with using a dutch oven-- even my largest nonstick pan was too small for all of the tasty ingredients!

My husband t this but I did think it was a bit salty. Be sure to taste your pesto and adjust the salt accordingly. The zucchini and onions cook down quite a bit but gel into a silky texture with the orzo, so I didn’t have the issue with the “mess” other reviewers did. I added a can of chick peas for protein which I thought worked beautifully. This will be in regular rotation.

I use ice cube trays - two different sizes. Once they're frozen I put them into ziplock bags. Works perfectly - I'm curious about a recommendation to leave an ingredient out.

Sub quinoa for orzo for a gf alternative

The cheese, as per Marcella Hazan

“This recipe is phenomenal “, to quote my husband. HOWEVER, on my first try (done per recipe recs), the orzo gloriously burned as I was changing the baby’s diaper, about 6-7min. into boiling it (needs 9 to be al dente).Also, the zucchini looked all mashed like other reviewers said.So the second time around, I shortened the zucchini onion time by 2min, and placed double the recommended amount of chicken broth on whole wheat rotini. I cooked the rotini 9min in the same pot and it was fantastic.

I followed the recipe exactly as written, and it was superb! It was visually appealing, with the colors of the Italian flag, and bursting with bright flavors. Thanks, Melissa!

can substitute orzo for 1.5 cups of rice to make gluten free! :)

Double the zucchini, serve with sourdough

I liked it but it took a lot longer than 25 mins from beginning to end.

This was a delicious meal that will be a permanent part of our rotation. I took the advice of several who recommended cooking the orzo and vegetable mixtures separately and then combining them at the end. I also used extra zucchini, upping the amount to about 4 cups. Other than those two changes, I made the recipe as written and it was devoured.

I followed the recipe as written and it was a mush-mess. I’d hoped that maybe the flavor would redeem the appearance but it was lackluster and flat. Disappointed.

Agree with others, absolute mess to cook everything in one pan. I also used shell pasta because I didn’t have orzo and had to adjust broth amount accordingly. It does not look appealing and is waaaaayyyyy too long to cook zucchini, but it tastes pretty good. Texture a bit off. Would make again if cooking pasta separately. Tomato, mozz, mint mixture absolutely delicious, wonder if adding mint to tomato and mozz would make a cool lil caprese topping situation

Yes it was a bit sloppy but wow, delicious!

This was fantastic. I made it exactly as directed, but in a Dutch oven, and the result was an amazingly flavorful dish with a risotto-like texture. I actually only added about 1/4 cup of pesto because it was already so tasty, it didn't really need much. I didn't have mint on hand, so I added a little basil instead. Bonus: my zucchini-hating kids didn't even notice the zucchini in it. Bwa ha ha!

Absolutely delicious, but too much salt is called for IMO. I halved the salt to start with and it was almost too salty

Awesome dish. Would be great for summer. Needs less than even half of the salt the recipe calls for, and a little pepper. Can even imagine it would taste delicious chilled.

We just made this tonight. As others suggested we cooked the orzo separately and added about 1/2 cup more zucchini. Delicious!

Made almost as written but forgot mint so left that out. Cooked in a Dutch oven and the orzo/zucchini/onion part worked fine and tasted delicious. I wouldn’t bother cooking the orzo separately as some have recommended. It took about 40 min start-to-table but i am a novice at this. Great way to use tomato and zucchini!

Reduce olive oil, double the lemon for more acid to balance all the fat