Orzo
OR-tsoh
Grain-shaped pasta the size of a large rice grain.
Name. Barley. Risoni, big rice, is the Italian shelf name; orzo is the American one.
What it is
Orzo is pasta cut to the shape of a barley grain, slightly bigger than rice. In Italy it is risoni or orzo and goes into soup. In the United States and Greece it has become a side dish and salad base, cooked like rice or a risotto.
Greek kritharaki and Turkish arpa sehriye are the same shape.
How to cook orzo
7 to 10 minutes in boiling salted water. Take the shorter time for al dente, the longer time for fully cooked.
7:00
Start when the water returns to the boil.
Water and salt
- Pasta, dry
- 400 g
- Water
- 4 L
- Salt
- 40 g
100 g per person as a main. A litre and 10 g of salt per 100 g. Adjust with the portion calculator.
The steps
- Bring 4 L of water to a full boil in a tall pot. Add 40 g of salt when it boils.
- Add the orzo. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
- Or cook it in the broth it will be served in, and do not drain it.
- Bite a piece at 6 minutes. A hairline of white at the centre is al dente.
- Scoop out a cup of the cooking water. Drain, or lift the pasta straight into the pan.
- Toss with the sauce over the heat for a minute. Add cooking water a splash at a time until it clings.
Read more: what al dente means and why the pasta water matters. Times for every shape are on the cook page.
How it holds sauce
Small grains cook in broth or absorb a light dressing. Soups, a lemon and herb salad, a baked dish with tomato and feta, or cooked like risotto with stock and parmesan.
Pairs with: In brodo · Minestrone · Pasta salad · Lemon and butter · Pomodoro
Classic plates: Orzo salad, Lemon orzo, Orzo in brodo, Giouvetsi, Orzotto.
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
4 brands, 5 product pages. Cook times run from 5 to 11 minutes across brands, so read the box, not a rule. A blank cell is a figure the brand does not state.
| Brand | Product | No. | Cook | Length | Width or Ø | Wall | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| De Cecco | Orzo no. 74 | 74 | 11 min | ||||
| Rummo | Semi di Orzo | 27 | 7 min | 10.65 mm | 2.6 mm | 1.6 mm | |
| Garofalo | Orzo | 26 | 5 min | Gragnano PGI · 454 g box | |||
| Barilla | Orzo | 10 min, al dente 9 | |||||
| Barilla | Orzolegume | 11 min, al dente 9 |
Nutrition
Per 100 g of dry semolina pasta. The shape does not change these numbers. The dough does, so a whole wheat or egg version of this shape reads differently. See every dough.
| Per 100 g | Energy | Protein | Carbohydrate | Fibre | Fat | Sodium | Iron |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dry | 371 kcal | 13.0 g | 74.7 g | 3.2 g | 1.5 g | 6 mg | 3.3 mg |
| Cooked | 158 kcal | 5.8 g | 30.9 g | 1.8 g | 0.9 g | 1 mg | 1.3 mg |
One portion. 100 g dry becomes about 235 g cooked, 371 kcal and 13 g of protein. Pasta takes on 2.3 times its weight in the pot.
Who makes orzo
62 orzo products are catalogued, most of them sold in United States, United Kingdom, Germany. Of those, 1 are gluten-free, 6 are organic, 1 are Gragnano PGI, 7 are made in Italy.
Brands: New World Pasta (4), Rice Select (3), DeLallo (3), Simply Balanced (3), Meijer (2), Barilla (2), Giant Eagle (2), Food Lion (2), George Delallo Co Inc (2), Catelli (1).
No orzo? Use these
Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look. Full substitute list.
Side by side
Easy to confuse with
Other names
Puntine, armellette, armelline, avena, avena grande, chicchi di riso, cicorie, cicorietta, kritharaki, midolline, occhi di giudeo, orzo pasta, puntalette, punte d'ago, puntine, risetto, risone, risoni, risoni riso, semi d'avena, semi d'orzo, semi di cicoria, semi di mela, semi di melone, semi di riso, semini, semoni.
Sources
- Orzo no. 74, De Cecco (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Semi di Orzo, Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Orzo, Garofalo (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Orzo, Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Orzo (legume), Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Cook time: De Cecco no. 74: 9 min.
- Photograph: Risi closeup.png, Popo le Chien, CC0.
- Open Food Facts (products, brands, labels), Open Database License, read on 2026-08-25.
- USDA FoodData Central (nutrition per 100 g, by dough: FDC 169736, Pasta, dry, enriched; FDC 169737, Pasta, cooked, enriched, without added salt), public domain. The cooked yield is derived from the two energy figures.
- Orzo, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Q1317552, Wikidata
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.