Quick and easy recipe for asparagus, pea, lemon orzotto

The strong flavour of the pea pesto allows this dish to be both spring-like and comforting. Telling you to stir whole peas through orzo sounds a little like nursery food, but if you’re serving this to small children who like pesto pasta (mine don’t), I’d recommend finely blitzing the pumpkin seeds before adding them to the pesto, because they’re quite large otherwise. This dinner is ideal for eating outside on a nice spring evening.

Asparagus, pea, and lemon orzotto

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Prepare in 15 minutes
Provides 2 Sea salt flakes
180 grams of orzo
200 grams of asparagus
50ml olive oil, along with 1 tbsp more for the asparagus
180g of fresh podded peas or frozen peas
50 grams of pumpkin seeds
50g grated parmesan (choose a vegetarian option if necessary)
Juice from half a lemon

Provide a large pan of generously salted water to a boil, then add the orzo and cook for eight minutes, or until tender yet still slightly firm to the bite. Drain thoroughly, and set aside a mugful of the cooking water.

In the meantime, place a griddle pan over high heat. Coat the asparagus with a tablespoon of oil, then grill for two minutes on each side (you might need to do this in batches). Move to a plate and sprinkle with a few sea salt flakes.

In the meantime, prepare the peas by placing them in a bowl of boiling water. Allow them to steep for two minutes (or three minutes if using frozen), then drain thoroughly. Pour the peas into a food processor, then add 50ml of oil, the pumpkin seeds, and the grated parmesan. Blend until you achieve a coarse paste.

Mix three-quarters of the pea pesto into the drained orzo, adding a few tablespoons of the pasta cooking water to loosen it if necessary – aim for the pasta to flow smoothly across the plate, rather than being piled up. Adjust the flavor with lemon juice and salt as necessary (if your pasta water was adequately salted from the start, you shouldn’t require much).

Split the orzo among warmed shallow bowls, then add the remaining pea pesto and the griddled asparagus on top, and serve immediately.