Orzo pasta with artichoke hearts

Eating takeaways again? No time to cook a proper meal?
This week's recipe can be prepared, cooked and served in well under 30 minutes, and if
you have the ingredients in your pantry it doesn't even require advance planning. It works perfectly as an entree or, if you've been working late, it is equally successful as a light supper.
If you choose the former option, it can be followed by an easily prepared main course steak and salad or a brace of artisan sausages on a pile of mashed kumara or potato. Then, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that everything on the table is your own
creation, and that's enough reason to open a bottle to celebrate.
1 cup orzo pasta (also called risoni)
1 Tbsp pure olive oil
half a red onion, peeled and chopped
1 yellow capsicum (stalk, ribs, seeds removed) diced
half tsp dried oregano
1 clove garlic, part-crushed, peeled and chopped
salt and pepper
4 tinned artichoke hearts, quartered lengthwise
3-4 Tbsps extra-virgin olive oil
chopped leaves of 3-4 sprigs flatleaf parsley
2cm chunk Parmesan cheese, shaved into strips
Bring a large pot of water to the boil, salted generously. Add the pasta and cook  10-12 minutes, then drain.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frypan and add the onion, capsicum and oregano. Cook, stirring from time to time, to soften, then add the garlic.
Stir the pasta into the mix, season to taste and serve in warmed bowls.
Arrange the quartered artichoke hearts on the top and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil.
Pile the shaved Parmesan in the middle and sprinkle with chopped parsley.
Serves 4 as entree or light supper
Wine match
This dish goes well with a number of white wine styles, but the silky-smooth texture of the orzo makes it particularly successful with the faint oiliness of pinot gris or viognier. Quest Farm is a new Central Otago label established by Mark Mason, one of the founders of Sacred Hill winery in Hawkes Bay. Red Tussock Pinot Gris 2008 contains 14 per cent barrel-fermented pinot blanc, a rare variety that is a distant cousin of its bottlemate. The resulting wine has a mineral-edged, straw-like bouquet and deliciously smooth flavours balanced by assertive, but smartly integrated, acids. You should find it for around $20. Equally successful with the dish is Trinity Hill Gimblett Gravels Viognier 2006, made by Warren Gibson. With aromas that suggest dried apricots and orange peel and a wealth of rich, savoury flavours, this is an excellent example of the style. It sells in the mid-$30s.