Orzo (also called risoni) is a small, rice-shaped pasta that has become increasingly popular outside of Italy in recent years. It’s used to make nourishing brothy soups, like pastina in brodo, a classic Italian comfort food. Despite its tiny size, orzo retains quite a lot of bite when chilled, and makes a pleasantly chewy base for pasta salads such as herbed orzo salad with sugar snaps, ricotta and pangrattato.

It can also be used in place of couscous or rice in other grain-based salads, or in orzotto, an orzo-based risotto. Although it's mostly associated with Italy, very similar tiny pastas are used in many other countries, and orzo works well in Turkish şehriye pilavı or Greek maneštra.

If you’ve never cooked with orzo before, this easy one-pot chicken baked with preserved lemon, orzo and parsley is a great place to start. It’s very versatile: preserved lemon can be swapped for fresh lemon, dill swapped out for more parsley, but the basic combination of chicken, capers and orzo is sure to be a winner.

Take a look at our full collection of orzo pasta recipes below.