Shrimp and Orzo pilaf

Well, I don't know if this is exactly a pilaf, but it looks a lot like one. And it makes this recipe sound fancier.

Ingredients

• 1 lb frozen shrimp (ok, you're SUPPOSED to use fresh shrimp, but seriously, we're college students)
• salt and black pepper
• 1 medium red onion, minced
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp of crushed/minced garlic
• 1 lb pastina (we used orzo and something that looked like spaghetti-o's)
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup water
• 1 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes, drained
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 4 oz chevre, crumbled (if you CAN)
• 4 tbsp of chopped chives

Preheat oven to 400.
Combine olive oil, minced onion, and some of the salt in a stockpot of Dutch oven. Cover and cook on medium-low heat until the onions have softened, about 8-10 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the pastina and cook, stirring frequently, until the orzo is coated with oil and lightly browned, about 4 minutes.
Stir in the broth and water and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is MOSTLY tender but still firm in the middle (this is sort of tricky to do), about 12 minutes.
Stir in the tomatoes and oregano.
Pour into a 9x13 glass baking dish and put the chevre on top, in whatever form you think is best. Bake for 20 minutes.
In the meantime, thaw the shrimp until they are cool but soft.
When the pilaf is done, take it out and put the shrimp in it and stir it all around. This will warm the shrimp sufficiently to eat them without getting them all rubbery.

Thoughts: Pretty delicious, actually. I was sort of skeptical of the dish, but I was very pleasantly surprised. The original recipe calls for 1 large red bell pepper as well, but we didn't have one. But I would definitely put one in next time. The original recipe also calls for saffron, but seriously. Come on. The pasta was pretty difficult to get to the right consistency. I think you're aiming for al dente on this one, which is what the recipe is going for when it says cook "until the grains of orzo are mostly tender yet still slightly firm at the center". Why don't they just SAY al dente? Whatever. I think we may also have felt a little ambivalent about chevre. I mean, it doesn't really melt, so it just sort of sits on top of the pasta. I don't know. I doubt feta would be much better, since it doesn't melt either. Mozzarella? Maybe. Look into.

Disaster Index: 1/10