“’Limes or lemons, and why?’

‘Lemons every day. I’ve always had a thing about them. Versatile, strong, beautiful, bright and take most recipes from average to game-changing at just a squeeze or scrape.’”

Lizzie Fiducia, quoted in Nourished Kitchen, published by The Australian Women’s Weekly

Don’t get confused with orzo, the grain, for this warm, fresh summery salad… you need either orzo pasta, or, even better (I think it soaks up sauce and dressings a bit better) Greek kritharaki pasta.

This is an example of lemon, as Lizzie Fiducia comments in the quote above, acting as a real game-changer. It raises the pasta from the ordinary to the sublime.

Good with kebabs, meatballs, kibbeh….

Recipe for warm, lemony orzo salad

Serves 6

Ingredients

• 225g/2¼ cups of orzo pasta, or kritharaki Greek pasta
• small bunch of mint
• 1 red onion
• 2 fat cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed with 1 tsp smoked salt
• 2 small courgettes
• 1 large lemon – zest and juice
• olive oil for frying
• 3 tbsps walnut oil

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 130°C.
2. Cook the orzo according to the packet instructions. Drain, and keep warm – you may be able to add it directly into the courgette mixture if you have that ready.
3. ….meanwhile peel and slice the onion into crescent shapes, and fry gently in olive oil.
4. In an ovenproof bowl (it only has to tolerate a warming oven – nothing really hot) mix the garlic, lemon, walnut oil, and some freshly ground pepper.
5. Grate in the courgette – you can use a potato peeler to do this.
6. Add the drained pasta. Mix all together.
7. Cover with foil and keep in the warming oven until you are ready to serve.
8. Serve with the mint torn over and mixed in.