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A Sheet Pan Recipe That Works
Cookbooks specializing in meals artfully arranged on sheet pans started coming into fashion in final
years of La Cuisine. From personal experience, the before images were a lot more appetizing then the after ones. We tried a few — with mixed results, to put it kindly. That said, even though this British author is a little wobbly on thorough instructions, I have produced some really neat dishes from this particular book, one of them below and another the somewhat modified but stellar Taleggio Carrot Tart. The recipes are vegetarian and vegan-based, which of course made someone else here very nervous when he first saw me reading it. Iyer has another cookbook that includes recognizable protein, 
which I think I will purchase. Both of Rukmini Iyer’s books have been published in the US under the titles: Vegetarian Dinner’s In The Oven and Dinner’s In The Oven
This so-easy recipe allows winter greenhouse cherry tomatoes to shine, especially with the addition of the bay leaves, Make it in the late summer as well, when you have boxes of yellow, red, green ones, and also different shapes. So simple, so delicious. Add some Parmigiano shavings before serving for a little richer variation.
- 200gr (70z) orzo
- 400ml (1 2/3 cups)vegetable or chicken stock
- 400gr (14oz) cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1/2 red onion finely sliced into half moons
- 2 bay leaves
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 2-3 teaspoons fine sea salt
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- A handful of basil leaves, torn, or roughly chopped parsley
- Preeheat oven to 180C. (375F)
- Mix the orzo with the stock in a low-sided casserole or roasting pan about 9x12 inches (24x30cm)
- Scatter the tomato halves over the orzo and stock and then the onion slices.
- Insert a bay leaf at each end - about an inch or two from each short side.
- Sprinkle with sea salt and a generous amount of freshly ground pepper.
- Transfer to oven and bake from 25 to 35 minutes.
- As soon as the pasta is cooked (it should be al dente and absorbed most of the liquid), drizzle across the top your olive oil.(the author suggests stirring the olive oil through lightly, but I prefer it just drizzled across.)
- Remove the bay leaves.
- Taste and season accordingly and sprinkle across your basil leaves or parsley.
- Shave some Parmigiano along with the fresh basil right before serving for a more scrumptious version.
After owning one of the best cooking stores in the US for 47 years, Nancy Pollard writes a blog about food in all its aspects – recipes, film, books, travel, superior sources and food related issues.
