Rissoni, also known as semi di melone, or any other short soup pasta can be used for this dish.
This was beautiful and if I could have given it 4.5 stars I would have. The only thing that didn't make this recipe a 5 star was that I felt it was missing just a little something and if I am going to spend time caramelizing onions (and I have a passion for caramelized onions) the resulting dish should be perfect. The next time I made the recipe I added some toasted pine nuts becuse I felt the missing ingredient was more a textural than a taste thing. It was stunning! Two points I would make are; One - I found it best to add the spinach when the pasta is nice and hot so the spinach wilts enough so that the rawness of it is taken away. Two - (For the onion timid) Four onions is *not* too many for this recipe! In fact, make them four nice big ones and a pinch of sugar to help the caramelization process along, you won't regret it!
Read More This was just not worth the expensive mascarpone cheese and blue cheese this recipe called for. It was just OK. Will definitely not make this again :(
Read MoreThis was beautiful and if I could have given it 4.5 stars I would have. The only thing that didn't make this recipe a 5 star was that I felt it was missing just a little something and if I am going to spend time caramelizing onions (and I have a passion for caramelized onions) the resulting dish should be perfect. The next time I made the recipe I added some toasted pine nuts becuse I felt the missing ingredient was more a textural than a taste thing. It was stunning! Two points I would make are; One - I found it best to add the spinach when the pasta is nice and hot so the spinach wilts enough so that the rawness of it is taken away. Two - (For the onion timid) Four onions is *not* too many for this recipe! In fact, make them four nice big ones and a pinch of sugar to help the caramelization process along, you won't regret it!
This is very tasty, a nice change from rice or potatoes. I must admit ... I was very nervious about the amount of onions. But it honestly worked. I wish I had added even more (smile) Just a note, I think this might have the potential to become dry, so I used a bit of the water that I cooked the orzo in before it became dry. Last note, like another person mentioned, I added the spinach to the hot orzo, so that the spinach would wilt a bit.
I 1/2'd the pasta and doubled the spinach. Used prewashed baby spinach and rotini shaped pasta. Also sub'd cream cheese for mascarpone. Had only 4 oz. of the blue cheese. VERY GOOD. It cools very quickly. Had to nuke individual servings. Fine for wife and I. Would be very difficult to serve warm to many more.
A very good recipe. I did not drain the onions which kept the orzo from getting too dry. The onions need to be medium to large sized because it takes a lot of onion to balance the blue cheese flavor. This is a new favorite, though reserved for special occasions which justify all of the chopping and tears.
This was just not worth the expensive mascarpone cheese and blue cheese this recipe called for. It was just OK. Will definitely not make this again :(
Am glad I took the time and slowly caramalized the onion. The flavor really worked well with blue cheese and mascarpone,and the cheese melted so nicely. Topped off with some pine nuts and it was great!
I had such high hopes for what sounded like such a delicious dish! I should've read all the reviews. Mascarpone did not work, cream cheese would have been better, four onions was NOT too much so keep them all in, 1 pound of pasta was way too much and too bland, the spinach needs to be added while it's still cooking to wilt it some. If I make it again, I'll make drastic changes. I agree it was missing "something" but not sure what. Toasted walnuts might have been a good addition too, but not sure what else would help this...
Great side dish! Did not have mascarpone on hand so I used cream cheese. And I had Gorganzola (same thing?) so I used that instead.
Excellent recipe. Used regular cream cheese and skipped the spinach. Will definitely make again.
This is a good recipe and I have made ir a few times now. Since there are few ingredients, I beleive the key to this recipe is to use good ingredients: vidalia or spanish onions onions and a good blue cheese.
This was very smooth, very mild taste. It was quite good (especially coming from my highly critical brothers). We discussed the flavor and all agreed that next time we will add either some bacon pieces or even a quality sausage to really make it awesome. THANK YOU FOR THIS RECIPE!
My husband is not a fan of blue cheese, I used a mild gorgonzola, and with the mascarpone it was very good and subtle, he actually had seconds!
This is wonderful. I did change the blue cheese to feta since I do not like blue cheese- but the feta works as a nice compliment.
This was delicious! I would suggest adding more fresh spinach--maybe a cup more. This is great as a leftover also. Would be great with a baked chicken breast and crusty Italian bread.
This was delicious if you like blue cheese. It's a bit of work to make and is very filling. We made it as a side dish and filled up on it and never got to the main meal. Would be a good side dish for company... Adrienne
I made this for our Christmas dinner and it was very good. I added extra blue cheese and freshly cracked black pepper. It was indulgent, but delicious!
There seemed to be something missing, needed a little more crunch. Make sure you really cook the onions, and add some sort of crunch to the texture. I think it'd be great with gorgonzola or goat cheese.
Great recipe -- the only thing I did differently, was to roast some whole garlic cloves in a little bit of olive oil in the oven, then add them at the end. Will definitely make this one again!
Yum! I love orzo so just had to try this. However, I hate blue cheese so I used Feta and it was wonderful! This recipe is definitely a keeper.
This is a very good side dish. I always use the number of onions called for, and I have used cream cheese. You will taste the sweetness of the caramelized onion, so if you don't like onion...
My family (5 yr old included) loved this dish. Make the effort to find the mascarpone cheese - it is divine!! It does make a lot, but the leftovers will go quick. In the carmelization process, I used regular yellow onions as they release more sugar and used a dash of salt and sugar. It took about an hour but so worth it. I served it alongside raspberry chicken.
This is a great dish, something different. Next time I would cut the Blue cheese in half and add some toasted pine nuts.
I've never thought i'd like onion but i did. Very tasty. One minus - it went out a bit dry.
This was pretty good, though I did make a couple easy changes that made it better enough for my husband to go from, "It's good," to "This is the BOMB!" Made 1/2 recipe to go with grilled flat iron steak. Didn't have fresh spinach, so I used fresh asparagus and fresh parsley. The asparagus, added to cook w/onions when nearly done caramelizing, stayed crisp so it gave the dish the added crunch some have complained it needed. I also added chopped fresh parsley and @ a cup of pasta water with the al dente orzo to the onions/asparagus to cook a few mins together over low heat before adding the cheeses. Ended up adding more blue cheese (to taste), pepper, and salt before serving. Next time will likely cook the orzo in broth for more flavor. Don't think I'll mess with the marscopone (sp?) next time either -- cream cheese will be better (more tart) I think. I'll also use even more onions and NOT VIDALIA -- too sweet. Thanks for the recipe -- love it when Hubby can't leave the leftovers alone when I'm trying to clear the table!
Played around with this recipe a little as I didn't have the mascarpone cheese, enough onions or spinach. I liked the results though as did the family. The overall flavor was good and different enough from our usual orzo side dish.
Initially I thought leaving the spinach uncooked was a weird idea, but it turned out brilliantly! Even my Italian friend said this was a great pasta dish. Will definitely make it again...
This was amazing - we could not stop eating it! I used sun-dried tomatoes in place of the spinach and used 3 big Vidalia onions. I topped with fresh parmesan and toasted pine nuts. The flavor is complex and rich... definitely something to make when you want to impress (and you have an hour to kill for carmelizing onions).
My boyfriend rated this a 4, although I rated it a 5, so 4.5 it is. I took a LONG time caramelizing my onions... probably over an hour over low-md heat. I like them to be uniformly brown and soft. I only used 4 ounces of bleu cheese, and I used cream cheese instead of mascarpone because my grocer was out. I used tiny shell pasta instead of the orzo and I thought it was a grown up version of shells and cheese! The bleu cheese didn't overpower at all. The sharp bleu cheese and the sweet onions were a perfect compliment. I loved it, and I will make it again, for sure.
I have made this several times and each with great success. It is one of my favorites to serve to guests. I have not changed the recipe in any way (which is unusual for me) as I just love it the way it is!
I made this for dinner last night as a side dish and it was very good. I added some slivered sundried tomatoes (packed in oil) and some toasted walnuts. This would be a great salad served at room temperature in the summertime.
Timing is essential in this recipe if you want to avoid a lukewarm final product since the only 'cooking' that the cheese and spinach get is from the orzo and the onions. To help warm it up a bit more, I recommend bringing your cheeses to room temp first and then adding some reserved pasta cooking water to the mixture to warm it up, as is done with many pasta recipes. I also agree about not skimping on the onions; they are absolutely necessary for balancing the blue cheese. My husband thought it needed more balancing, so increasing the onions might be a good idea. Finally, caramelizing the onions takes much longer than stated.
Yum, yum and yum! I would probably change the cheese to feta or gorgonzola and add lots more spinach, but this really is a fabulous recipe. Thank you!
We really liked this. I didn't have any fresh spinach so I just omitted it. I used reduced-fat cream cheese instead of marscapone. My 4-year-old asked for seconds!!
This dish came out pretty good! I did make some alterations to suit my family's taste. I subbed parmesan cheese for the blue cheese. I caramelized shallots instead of the onion- shallot is more subtle in flavor than onions. I also added 2 tsp of minced garlic to the shallots during the last few minutes of cook time. I also added the spinach to the pan to wilt it down.
Absolutely delish. Subbed feta because that's what I had, and also added some parmesan cheese. Fabulous.
I think I would use less blue cheese, maybe the same amount as the mascarpone; although I did sub it for cream cheese. Added walnuts for crunch that it needed. It was a little intense for a side-dish, and expensive too.
Okay. We don't like blue cheese so we substituted it for feta cheese and omitted the spinach. This was not bad. Not our absolute favorite, but a good addition to beef burgundy I (found on this website).
This was just OK to me. Don't skimp on the onions even though it seems like alot. I wish I would have used more and I don't even like onions that much.
- makes a TON - for one person use a 1/4 of the rissotto - carmalize onions for at least an hour - use cream cheese by adding it SLOWLY - use high quality blue cheese - good for a side, way too rich for entree
I give this one star because: the blue cheese COMPLETELY overwhelmed all the other ingredients; it was VERY dry, AND to add insult to injury, slicing and carmelizing all those onions was a real pain in the butt!
I substituted grated fresh parmesan for blue cheese because like a previous reviewer said, the blue cheese overwhelmed the dish. I also added a lot more spinach. This dish has a very mild taste and could use garlic maybe, or some bacon. I think this would be a hit with kids who like the more simple dishes.
Another great Orzo recipe! Served it with thick slices of fresh crusty French Bread and an ice cold dark beer. Delicious combination.
I've made this several times now & we love it. I'm allergic to blue cheese so substitute feta instead. Used both mascarpone & cream cheese and to me both versions taste the same so if you want to save a couple of bucks, feel free to use cream cheese. It's all good!
Great side dish-takes a little bit of work, but it was worth it. My husband especially loved this.
This recipe was delicious! We subsituted feta cheese for the blue cheese, and to cut costs we used cream cheese instead of the mascapone cheese. Wonderful! We will definately make it again!
This is the first recipe I've made from this site that I did not like. I couldn't even bring myself to eat it. The flavors were overpowering and didn't mech well together - I even tried adding some tomatoes to my portion with no avail.
It was good, but not outstanding. To justify the expense and time you expend making this dish, it needs to be outstanding, and this missed the mark. I'm not sure what's missing honestly. Maybe the crunch of nuts, as another reviewer suggested. I did find I needed to salt this quite liberally, perhaps there's just too much pasta here? I don't know, something was not perfect. A bite of the caramelized onions with a bite of the blue cheese before I added the ingredients all in together was heavenly though, so there's nothing wrong with the mixture of flavors here (provided you like both blue cheese and caramelized onions). If I were to ever try again, I'm dead certain of one thing: I'd not use orzo. I'd use rice or any other shape of pasta. The orzo was extremely annoying. You know how when you drain pasta there's always 3 or 4 noodles stuck to the pot? Imagine that, only instead of 3 or 4 large noodles, it's 40 or 50 rice-sized ones for you to scrape out by hand later so you don't clog up the dishwasher! Rice or farfalle for sure if I were to try again, though that's nothing against the recipe, can't judge it down because I thought the pasta was a pain :) Thanks for the recipe, we enjoyed eating it!
This was delicious. I added some sweet corn for texture and a little extra flavor, and it was perfect.
3 out of 5 five family members enjoyed this, the other two were not happy at all.
I thought this was really good. I'd never used Orzo pasta before, so this was a pretty good introduction. I only used 3 onions and used cream cheese instead of mascarpone, but it had really good flavor. I seems like most people use this as a side dish, but we ate it as the main entree, with a small side salad and some garlic toast and it was very filling. Definitely worth a try if you are a fan of bleu cheese and caramelized onions.
Yum! I was looking for a recipe to make with items that I had on hand and I came across this one. I did not have orzo or blue cheese so I substituted rice and gorgonzola. I also added some artichoke hearts. Next time I think I will throw in some slivered almonds as well. Very tasty.
Great dish! I subbed in spinach for edamame. Although the serving size is way off. The recipe says it's for 4 servings, I would say 8 is more accurate.
Granted, I only had about 1/3 of the blue cheese the recipe called for and so I substituted goat cheese for the rest of the blue cheese, however I found this recipe less than delicious. The carmelized onions were slightly sweet which I thought would blend well with the sharp cheese but actually it didn't. I took one of the earlier reviewers suggestions and added pine nuts as well as doubling the spinach requirement. I also added two cloves of finely minced garlic. The garlic winded up being too strong so that apparantly wasn't the greatest idea. My husband disliked this recipe as well and he's not at all picky.
I really enjoyed this recipe. I used elbow macaroni instead of orzo and it was fabulous. I will definitely make this again.
This is an excellent recipe. To my taste, it would be improved with a little garlic, maybe a little wine vinegar or lemon juice, for a little tangier flavor.
This was really good! I read through all the reviews and made some adjustments: added chicken, cut down on the mascarpone/cream cheese by half (probably could've left it out altogether), increased the spinach, added sautéed garlic and a few walnuts for crunch. We had roasted cauliflower with it, and I wound up throwing that on top, which added some more crunch. Compliments from my husband and second helpings from my daughter. This one is a keeper!
Great!
Added chopped bacon and grape tomatoes. Delicious! Can't wait to make it again.