Giada's Baked Orzo with Fontina & Peas **Lite**

I love Food Network chef Giada De Laurentiis. Her recipes are so delicious and to me combine tradition with a new twist. I watched one of her latest episodes of Everyday Italian last week and saw her make a Baked Orzo with Fontina and Peas. Yesterday, I visited the Green Market in Piedmont Park and I discovered Pappardelle's Pasta. They've been around since 1984 selling artisanal pasta to restaurants. They only sell their pasta in select places around the country (mostly farmer's markets). They had a whole wheat orzo so I bought some of that and decided I would give a whirl with Giada's recipe. As I've mentioned before, I'm trying to watch what I eat so I needed to lighten up her recipe a bit. The results were amazing, perhaps I say that because I haven't tried the original recipe. But, if I keep telling myself that, I'll resist the urge to make it with heavy cream and butter. I used a mixture of mushrooms; morels, porcini, brazilian caps, ivory portabellas, shitake, and oyster. Any mushroom will do but this mix added a nice complexity to the dish. Here's my lightened up version. If you want to go all the way, click on the link above to see her original recipe. If you are counting points on Weight Watchers 1/8 of the pan is 9 points.

Baked Orzo with Fontina and Peas **Lite**
(Adapted from Giada De Laurentiis' Everyday Italian, Episode EI1112)
8 Servings

4 cups vegetable broth
1 pound orzo pasta
1 tablespoon of olive oil and some non-stick cooking spray
1 onion, chopped
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1 cup Marsala wine
1/2 cup evaporated skim milk
4 ounces shredded fontina cheese(about 1 cup)
4 ounces diced fresh mozzarella cheese (about 1 cup)
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon dried thyme

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a 9 by 13-inch baking dish with canola or olive oil cooking spray.

Bring the broth to a boil over medium-high heat in a medium saucepan. Add the orzo and cook until almost tender, about 7 minutes. Pour the orzo and the broth into a large bowl. Set aside.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil over medium heat in a medium skillet. Add the onions and saute until tender, about 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms and continue to saute until the mushrooms are beginning to turn golden around the edges, about 7 minutes. Add the Marsala. Scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pan and cook until the Marsala has reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Add the mushroom mixture to the orzo in the large bowl. Add the evaporated skim milk, fontina, mozzarella, peas, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish.

In a small bowl combine the bread crumbs, Parmesan, and dried thyme. Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture on top of the pasta. Bake until golden, about 25 minutes.