This makes the perfect dinner for a few different reasons, but the main reason is that it’s so darn delicious. You get a gorgeous burst of tomato flavour, but it’s also nice & creamy at the same time. Then with the smokiness from the bacon, it’s all just a heck of a good time 🤤 Follow me…
One Pot Tomato Bacon Orzo
You’ll want to kick off the recipe by frying the bacon. I typically keep the bacon whole at the start, remove it and dice later (much easier to slice cooked bacon than it is to slice raw bacon!). This way the bacon can keep a little bit of texture, instead of cooking with the sauce and turning soft.
What kind of bacon should I use?
I recommend using streaky bacon. Reason being is you can then render down all the fat and use it to fry the onion and garlic. Not a huge issue if you’ve only got regular bacon. I usually go for unsmoked bacon, but if you prefer smoked then go for that!
Starting low ‘n’ slow
I recommend adding the bacon to the pan with the heat off, then turning it to a medium. This way you can render down the fat without burning the meat. Don’t be tempted to crank up the heat – you need to work for that liquid gold! Process shots: add bacon to pan (photo 1), fry then remove (photo 2), fry onion (photo 3), fry garlic (photo 4), fry tomato puree (photo 5), add orzo (photo 6).
Tomato Orzo with Spinach
Once you’ve added the orzo, you can go straight in with the stock and cook the orzo in the same pan. This, in my opinion, is a far superior method to cooking the orzo separately for a few different reasons:
Starch – The orzo will release its starch, which helps bind/thicken the sauce and turn it a little creamy. Flavour – The orzo will soak in all the gorgeous flavours of the sauce as it cooks. Ease – Less washing up!
Creamy tomato orzo
The sauce will already be a little creamy from the orzo, but just to take things to the next level I love adding mascarpone! You’ll want to stir this in at the end to help thicken the sauce and turn it outrageously creamy.
Baby Spinach
It’ll seem like you’re adding way too much at the start, but it wilts down a lot. I keep the spinach whole, but you can roughly dice it if you’d prefer. Process shots: add stock and sun dried tomatoes (photo 7), simmer (photo 8), stir in mascarpone (photo 9), add basil and spinach (photo 10), stir (photo 11), stir in bacon and parmesan (photo 12).
Serving Tomato Bacon Spinach Orzo
The orzo should end up with a risotto-style consistency. If at any point the sauce thickens too much, just stir in a splash of water or stock. To serve, you can sprinkle over any leftover basil and parmesan you’ve got lurking around (completely optional). Alrighty, let’s tuck into the full recipe for this tomato bacon spinach orzo shall we?!
How to make Tomato, Bacon & Spinach Orzo (Full Recipe & Video)
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