Orzo Pasta Salad

Last weekend my girlfriends came from Seattle to spend a day at the farm. I made an easy dinner of shrimp on the barbie, orzo pasta salad and some grilled garden veggies. My friend Di, who loves the party barn, asked if we could have dinner out there...of course, I enjoy a summer evening in the party barn just as much as the next gal.
The orzo salad was a new recipe that I found on epicurious.com, we all decided it was a keeper recipe. I took the leftovers on my glamping trip this week and my sister and niece liked it too, those two are my favorite recipe testers. It's been a while since I posted a recipe and I figured this would be a good one to share.

Orzo With Everything
1 1/2 cups orzo pasta
1/3 cup (packed) chopped drained oil packed sun dried tomatoes
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar - I used about half that amount, that was plenty
1/4 cup (packed) chopped Kalamata olives or other brine cured black olives
1 cup finely chopped radicchio - I skipped this ingredient
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup fresh Parmesan - I used feta instead
2 cloves minced fresh garlic, I used my mortal and pestle and ground it with a little salt
salt and pepper to taste

Cook orzo pasta according to directions on package, next time I'll cook it in chicken broth - I was out and didn't feel like running to the store. When orzo is cool add the rest of the ingredients.

optional ingredients: chopped marinated artichoke hearts (I added a small jar), chopped scallions, cherry tomatoes, chopped red bell pepper, substitute arugula for basil.

epicurious.com is one of my favorite sites when I want to do recipe research. The part of the site that I really like is the reader recipe reviews, if you want to print a recipe you have the option of printing the reader reviews you like along with the recipe.