Use up your garden tomatoes in this tomato orzo salad with tahini dressing

We’re at the height of tomato season, people. If you’ve got them in your garden, hopefully you’re picking and enjoying as many as possible. Iif you don’t have a garden, though, the ones at the store are at maximum deliciousness.

Here’s a unique way to make the most of this special time: Make this roasted-tomato pasta salad that’s cool enough for a Labor Day barbecue, but mixes so many fresh flavors it might end up being the main course.

Shared by Kitchn writer Will Coleman, the salad drops the usual rotini spirals in favor of orzo, an oblong, rice-like pasta. You get a little bit of everything in each bite!

Coleman starts the salad by roasting grape or cherry tomatoes along with shallots and diced pineapple for sweetness. A little char on these is preferred. You can even grill them if you’d rather.

While those items are going, go ahead and make the pasta. Give the roasting pan a good stir, then get to work on the salad dressing: lemon juice, olive oil, tahini and salt, whisked together briskly in a large bowl.

Next up: crunch, in the form of a large, finely-diced English cucumber. As soon as it’s ready, toss it in the big bowl with the dressing. Then do the same for the other fresh ingredients.

For a hit of tangy richness, crumble feta cheese into the dressing. But don’t go crazy on the crumble. Coleman recommends medium-size bites to keep the feta’s “presence” strong.

Finally, add the orzo and the roasted-tomato mixture into the bowl. Toss to combine, and you’re done! The salad is good warm or cold, so choose your own adventure.

Coleman notes that as the season changes, roasted cauliflower could be a good addition to try. Heck, throw some rotisserie chicken in there and make it a meal. The beauty of pasta salad is that new mixtures are the name of the game. And I bet anything tastes good with that tahini dressing.

Click here to get the full recipe, complete with ingredient amounts and the exact method, at Kitchn.