This recipe would be delicious any time of year, under any weather conditions: let’s just be clear on that. But especially in the late days of summer (when the thought of heating up your kitchen is just excruciating) cool, filling salads are a godsend. And when they’re as flavorful as this one — shrimp! basil! tomatoes! it’s almost a caricature of summer! — it’s no sacrifice at all.

Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Lemony Orzo with Tuna

Ingredients

10 oz frozen cooked salad shrimp (or another larger size, which you’ll cut up)

6 Tbsp olive oil
4 Tbsp lemon juice
1 small red onion, diced (about 1/2 cup)
2 doz. cherry tomatoes, quartered (or 1 medium tomato, diced)
1 c slivered basil, loosely packed, from 1 big bunch
Salt and pepper to taste

1 pound orzo

Directions

Set a large pot of lightly salted water, covered, over high heat. You’ll do the rest of the prep work while it comes to a boil.

Thaw the shrimp by running them under cold water in a colander until they have softened. Drain thoroughly and set aside. (If you have larger shrimp, peel if necessary and cut into small, bite-size pieces.)

Whisk together the olive oil and lemon juice in a small bowl and toss with the onion, and set aside.

Once the water is boiling, drop in the orzo and cook, uncovered, until the pasta is tender (probably about ten minutes, but see package directions and test as you go). You want to go a little beyond al dente, since this isn’t a hot dish, but you also don’t want it mushy.

When the pasta is cooked, drain it in a colander and rinse with cool water to remove excess starch. Drain thoroughly, and combine with the shrimp, onion mixture, tomatoes, and basil. Season to taste and serve room temperature or chilled.

Note

Slivering basil: you want to use a knife cut called a chiffonade. Basically, you stack the leaves together, roll them into a tight little cigar shape, then cut them across into little shreds. See the image in the post above for a visual representation.

Options

The recipe that inspired this one uses canned tuna, and that would also be very good here. In fact, I imagine any canned seafood would make a lovely variation. Or in the other direction, if you’re in a coastal area where you can get easily fresh shrimp you should definitely avail yourself of them. You’ll likely need to boil and peel them yourself unless you have a very full-service fishmonger, but the seller should be able to give you some tips if you aren’t already wise to the ways of shrimp.

I used 10 oz. of shrimp just because that was the package size that was readily available at the grocery store. Depending on your love of shrimp and the health of your wallet, you could easily increase the amount of shrimp in here, up to doubling it.

Vegetarian option: you could certainly just leave out the shrimp, and this would be a nice grainy side dish, but I think it needs a bit more bulk to really sustain you through a hot sunny afternoon. I suggest cheese, and while the specter of Caprese salads might lead you to think of mozzarella, I think feta would be a better choice. I’d suggest not mixing it in and letting it sit for leftovers, though, since it can get a little mushy; instead, make the salad as is, omitting the shrimp, and add the feta when you serve it (or in the morning when you put together a brownbag lunch). Be careful when seasoning the salad not to oversalt, since the feta will bring a lot of saltiness with it.

People often think orzo is a grain, since it looks so much like rice. It’s actually a pasta, but this reipe would also adapt well as a grain salad. I’m thinking brown rice, but you could probably go with quinoa or even wheat berries very productively. Just make sure the grains are cooked all the way to tenderness — even more than pasta, cold grains tend to seize up and feel chalky between your teeth when they’re not very tender.