I’ve made a lot of one pot dinners lately. You may have noticed. Tonight I got all ambitious and was going to make three dishes:  Salmon with Red Pepper Pesto, Brown Butter Orzo, and sautéed chard with garlic. Nice! Well, I made the pesto, browned some butter and got the orzo cooking, cleaned and sliced the chard and started it cooking, and then seasoned my salmon and stuck it in the oven to broil. At which point my kitchen began to smell like a chum factory. Doh. Buying fish on the weekends is just a lame idea, unless you know the person who caught it.

The dogs got salmon for supper, the pesto went in the fridge, and I got a couple tasty sausages out of the freezer. Some defrosting and browning later, I threw them in with the orzo and chard and had, you guessed it, another one pot dinner. It was actually pretty damn good! So I give you, Orzo with Chard and Sausage:

My Beautiful Disaster

2 Tbsp butter
1.5 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup white wine
1 cup orzo
1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
1 bunch chard, washed, dried, stemmed*, and sliced coarsely
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
2 pre-cooked smoked sausages, sliced
sprinkle of sea salt
freshly ground pepper

Set the broth and water to boil in a small saucepan. Melt the butter in a larger pan – I used a small dutch oven (the enamel makes it easier to control the browning). Cook for a few minutes until it starts to brown and smell good. Add the orzo and sauté for a couple of minutes. Stir in the wine and let it absorb for a minute. Add the simmering liquid, stir, and cover. Simmer for 7 minutes covered, and then uncover to allow some of the liquid to evaporate as it finishes cooking – mine was too runny when I left it covered the whole time.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a pan and add the garlic. Sauté for just a few minutes – don’t let it burn. Add the chard and the sausage and cook at high heat until the chard has wilted and the sausage had browned slightly. Stir into the fully cooked orzo and add Pecorino. Season to taste with ground pepper and sea salt.

*I was in a rush so I didn’t want to deal with the chard stems. They are actually pretty tasty, so if you have the time you can chop them and cook them for a few minutes before you throw in the leaves. More fiber, more nutrition, more pretty!