Dodecanese Orzo-Style Pasta with Tomato (Sitaraki)

Sitaraki is the Dodecanese's own small wheat pasta, similar in size and shape to kritharaki or orzo, and its name comes directly from sitari, wheat, reflecting how central it once was to the island group's everyday cooking. Cooked simply in a tomato and onion sauce, it turns from a handful of small dried pasta into a substantial, thick, one-pot meal within half an hour.

It sits closer to giouvetsi in spirit than to a standard Italian pasta dish, since the pasta is cooked directly in the sauce rather than boiled separately and combined afterwards, letting it absorb the tomato as it swells and releasing its own starch back into the pot to thicken everything further.

This is genuinely quick, forgiving weeknight food once you have the pasta itself, which is worth seeking out specifically if you want the authentic texture, though a standard orzo or kritharaki is a very close and easy substitute.

Key preparation steps

1. Cook onion down until soft in olive oil.
2. Build a simple tomato sauce.
3. Add the sitaraki directly to the simmering sauce.
4. Cook until tender and the sauce has thickened around it.

What sitaraki is, and what to use instead

Sitaraki is a small, roughly rice-grain-shaped wheat pasta, sold dried in Dodecanese and some wider Greek grocers. If it is not available, orzo or kritharaki, both similar small pasta shapes used elsewhere in Greek cooking, work as a direct and very close substitute in both size and cooking behaviour.

Building the sauce

Cook a generous amount of finely chopped onion slowly in olive oil until properly soft and sweet, which takes a genuine ten to twelve minutes over a low heat, since the onion is doing much of the flavour work here alongside the tomato.

Add garlic, then tinned or grated fresh tomato, and simmer for ten minutes to concentrate the flavour before the pasta goes in.

Cooking the pasta in the sauce

Add the sitaraki directly to the simmering tomato sauce along with enough hot water to cover generously, and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until tender, about twelve to fifteen minutes. It will absorb much of the liquid and release its own starch, thickening the whole pot considerably.

Add a splash more hot water if it looks like drying out before the pasta is properly tender, and finish with a generous grating of hard cheese and a drizzle of good olive oil.

What matters in this dish