Orzo

Fresh herbs abound here—as does niacin, an energizing B vitamin: One serving of salmon dishes up nearly 70 percent of your daily niacin needs.

Because of its shape, orzo can do nearly anything rice can do, and if you're a pasta lover, you might say orzo does it better.

This dish is like risotto (only quicker and easier) and features cooked orzo topped with garlicky shrimp.

A classic Greek soup that's thickened with eggs and spiked with lemon. Add some shredded rotisserie chicken and call it a meal.

Luke Ostrom is a great cook. We've worked together for a long time; we've spent long nights drinking and talking food; we even traveled through Italy together. He knows his stuff, no doubt. So when he tells me we should try something, I usually listen. But when he started going on about orzo in our opening-menu-planning sessions, I was less than enthusiastic. He loved it when he was a kid, he said. It was so soul-satisfying and delicious, he said. It would make a great side dish on our menu, he said. But I wasn't buying it. I thought orzo was the kind of comfort food you fed to children and invalids: too bland, too soft, too ... boring. Boy, was I wrong. Luke's take on orzo can definitely qualify as comfort food: it's hearty, warm, and delicious, the kind of thing you can't stop eating. But it's also grown-up and complex: the wild mushrooms give it a rich earthiness, and the orzo has a great mouth-feel. It's sort of like the mushroom risotto of your dreams—only it's way easier. It's a great match with poultry or meat; but as far as I'm concerned, ain't nothing wrong with sitting down to a big heaping bowlful of this stuff all on its own, topped with a handful of Parmigiano-Reggiano.

This satisfying vegetarian combo—a black-eyed-pea salad with tomatoes; orzo tossed with olives, red onion, and cucumber; and salty crumbles of feta cheese—sings of the Aegean sun.

Attention, dill: Please step away from the salmon. Here, the herb gets to show its versatility—and its Greek side.

Small pasta like acini di pepe and orzo make wonderful room-temperature salads, since they mix so thoroughly with the other ingredients and never go stiff. Garlic, olives, and chile flakes lend a lot of zip to this quick side dish you'll come back to all summer.

Serve this cold or at room temperature—perfect for a picnic or barbecue.

Since sautéing orzo in butter gives it a nutty taste and toasting almonds makes them buttery, it should be no surprise that the two ingredients are perfectly complementary in this pilaf.

The way cinnamon expands the dimensions of brown butter means that you won't overtly taste the spice here, just pasta with deep, rich, nutty undertones. Chopped parsley freshens every bite.

This dish is a summery variation on the Northern Italian pairing of tomato-braised ossobuco and saffron-flavored risotto. Here the delicious classic combination is lightened up with orzo and wilted grape tomatoes.

For this lovely side dish, orzo pasta is cooked like risotto.

Executive chef Michael Psilakis, at Dona in New York City, recommends piling leftovers of this dish over greens for an easy next-day salad.

This pasta dish would be a great side with grilled trout.