Easy One Pot Italian Rice with Pesto and Tomatoes

This easy to make Italian-style rice dish is packed with punchy flavours of basil and tomato in classic combination. A tasty side dish to lift any meal, this fluffy pilaf sports the colours of the Italian flag.

Homemade Italian Rice Pilaf

A pilaf (or pilau) is rice, slowly cooked with broth or stock and other aromatic ingredients such as onions, garlic, spices and herbs. As the rice cooks, it acts like a sponge, absorbing all those delicious flavours. Where risotto, the classic Italian rice dish, is wet and creamy, pilaf is light and fluffy.

This Italian rice dish, with concentrated bursts of flavour from sundried tomatoes and basil pesto, is bright and vibrant. It makes a great accompaniment to chicken, white fish or aubergine dishes. Alternatively, you could add some extra vegetables for a one-pot spectacular. 

This is such a simple recipe – just fry the onion & garlic, add the rice, the stock (twice the volume of liquid to rice), stir in the pesto and sun dried tomatoes, cover, cook and serve! 

Why You Will Love This Italian Rice Recipe

• It is quick and easy, needing less than 5 minutes’ hands-on time.
• You will have a perfect rice pilaf every time using the absorption method of cooking.
• It makes a triple batch. Cook once, eat three times! 
• You can make it on the stove top, or in a pressure cooker / Instant Pot – I have provided instructions for both methods below. 

Fuss Free Tip 

When you know my simple tips, rice is easy to cook. There is no need to buy easy cook or minute rice ever again.

Cooking Rice Pilaf by the Absorption Method

I find the absorption method absolutely the best, most reliable way to cook long grain rice. It can take a little practice but it is well worth it. 

First, use a heavy pot with a lid that fits correctly. I use a cast-iron casserole dish that is just the right size to serve four to six.

Fry the rice gently in a little oil. Then add a pinch of salt. Then add the liquid (water or stock) – you need twice as much liquid by volume as rice. Bring it to a gentle simmer, put the lid on, and turn the heat down low.

Leave the rice for 18 minutes. DO NOT be tempted to lift the lid. If you do, the steam that escapes will change the rice to liquid ratio. 

When the rice is cooked, turn the heat off. Fluff up your rice with a fork and leave it for up to a quarter of an hour in the covered pot before serving. 

Italian Rice Ingredients 

• Long Grain Rice – Any regular white long grain rice or basmati will do, but it must be white. You could use brown rice, but you will need to adjust both the cooking time and the liquid needed. I don’t recommend easy cook or minute rice. I find the texture of the grains is slightly bouncy and chewy and the cooking times and quantities might be off. 

Pro Tip – Buying Rice

 We eat a lot of rice! Even though I cook for two most of the time, I still buy large 2 kg / 4.5 lb bags of rice. Buy the supermarket regular rice or a mid-priced branded rice. There is no need to buy the most expensive brand unless it is on offer.

The cheapest rice might look like a bargain, but is often best avoided as it may contain the broken grains that have been sifted out from the more expensive bags versions. This means your rice will be sticky and starchy once cooked.

• Onion & Garlic – White or red onions, it doesn’t matter. 
• Sun Dried Tomatoes – I try to avoid as much refined oil as I can, so I choose those preserved in olive oil. 
• Pesto – Again, not the cheapest or most expensive. Keep an eye on the ingredients list if anyone has nut or seed allergies, or if you need to make sure your dish is vegan or vegetarian. There are versions to suit everyone available, but if you need to, you can make it fresh and have complete control. Just whizz up fresh basil with a little olive oil and add it at the end of cooking rather than with the tomatoes.

How to Make Italian Rice Pilaf on the Stove

Step One – Find your ingredients. Check you have everything you need before you start! 

Step Two – Peel and chop the onion and garlic.

Step Three – Put the oil in a pan (I like to use a shallow casserole dish with a well fitting lid). Add the onion with some pepper and salt. Sauté over a low heat, stirring all the time. After a couple of minutes, add the garlic. You want the onion just starting to turn golden. This will take about 4-5 minutes.

Step Four – Add the rice. Stir and cook for a minute, so that the rice becomes coated with the oil. 

Step Five – Pour the stock over the rice. Then add the pesto and sun-dried tomatoes and stir through. Bring the liquid to a gentle simmer. Then put the lid on the pan securely. Cook on the lowest heat for 18 minutes.

I recommend using a heat diffuser if you have trouble getting the heat low enough.

Step Six – After 18 minutes, take the pan off the stove top and leave for another 5 minutes. 

Then fluff the Italian rice with a fork and it is ready to serve. 

Which Rice to Use?

Any white long grain rice works with this recipe, but you do want long grain rather than the arborio or carnaroli used in many Italian rice dishes. Just don’t use a quick-cook, easy-cook or minute rice, as you’ll likely end up with a mushy, sticky mess and the cooking times and ingredient ratios will be wrong. 

You’ll get a better result if you use basmati rice, which is more flavoursome and fragrant than ordinary long grain rice. Brown rice will take longer to cook, and will also need more liquid.

Pressure Cooker / Instant Pot Italian Rice

This recipe works perfectly made in an Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker. The only difference is that you will need the same volume of liquid to rice! 

• Set the sauté function. Add the oil, chopped onion and garlic, and some pepper and salt. Then fry, stirring all the time until the onion is golden. 
• Cancel sauté – Add the rice in and stir so it is coated with the oil. Give it a gentle fry for a minute. There will be more than enough residual heat in the pot. 
• Add the rest of the ingredients – the stock, pesto and sun dried tomatoes. Give everything a good stir, making sure there are no burnt bits on the bottom of the pot.
• Put the lid on the pot and seal. Pressure cook on high for three minutes, leaving ‘keep warm’ switched on. After cooking, allow natural pressure release (NPR) for 18 minutes. Release any remaining pressure (there will be very little, if any) before removing the lid. 
• Fluff the rice and serve. 

When making pressure cooker rice you can increase the quantity, but not reduce it. This is because you need at least 1 cup of liquid for the pressure cooker to come to pressure. 

Homemade Italian Rice Pilaf – Tips and Tricks

• I cook rice in a heavy cast-iron casserole dish or Dutch oven. Any heavy sauce pan will do.
• Use a pan with a lid that fits. If the lid doesn’t fit properly, some of the steam will escape. This can result in dry rice. If the lid isn’t tight, add an extra spoonful of water.
• Cook on the lowest heat. If necessary, use a stove top heat diffuser or simmer ring. These cost very little and will last and last.
• Don’t peek. Let the rice do its thing. If you let the steam escape, it will alter the rice to water ratio.
• To make this dish even faster, chop up a double batch of onion and garlic, pop in a plastic tub, and freeze. You can then fry the onion from frozen the next time you make it.
• Add more vegetables. I am a huge fan of adding as much Extra Veg as you can to a meal. Aubergine is an excellent addition here (add in diced aubergine at the start), or peas and corn – simply defrost, heat and stir through before you serve.

Leftover Pesto and Sundried Tomatoes

Jarred deli items such as pesto and sundried tomatoes are fantastic pantry staples, and I keep a few jars of each in the cupboard as they are perfect for adding to pasta, pizza, savoury tarts or soup. 

However they don’t last that long once opened, so keep in the fridge and use within a week.  

How to store and use leftover pesto

• Press the remaining pesto so it is flat, cover with some more olive oil and keep in the fridge, using within a week. 
• For longer storage stir extra olive oil through the pesto and freeze in the jar.  The oil stops it freezing completely solid and you can simply scoop out with a spoon
• Make pesto dressing
• Use in Philly pesto chicken pasta
• Add to a root vegetable salad
• I also add pesto to tomato based pasta sauces or soups. 

How to store and use leftover sun dried tomatoes

• Make sure all the tomatoes are submerged under the oil and keep in the fridge, using within a week.
• Drain the tomatoes, snip into little pieces, pack into a air tight tub and freeze. 
• Use the oil when roasting vegetables for soup, it would be delicious used in my tomato and lentil soup.
• Add the oil to a salad dressing
• Add pieces of sun dried tomatoes to rice or pasta dishes or scatter over a homemade pizza. 
• Whizz them though a tomato soup to add texture and richness.

Can I Make Italian Rice Ahead?

There’s no real need to make such an easy recipe ahead of time, but you can as it is perfect for batch cooking. You can also keep any leftovers to reheat in the microwave. I find that the quantities given here are perfect for three easy after-work suppers for two, as a side dish.

If you do make your rice ahead of time, make sure that it cools quickly. Put it in an airtight pot in the fridge as soon as possible. Keep it for no more than 48 hours and make sure that you reheat it thoroughly before serving.

Can I Freeze Italian Rice?

I’m a great believer in cook once and eat twice, especially when you are cooking for two (or one). I usually make a double batch of rice, but because of all the lovely veggies this recipe makes enough for 6, and will perfectly fill 3 standard takeaway trays.  

Pack leftovers into a takeout tray or other lidded freezer proof box. Allow to cool and then freeze as soon as possible. Then grab a tub from the freezer and defrost in the fridge before reheating, or microwave from frozen. 

More rice recipes? 

We love rice as a side, especially with savoury mince, or in a one pot and probably eat more rice than pasta and potatoes put together. Why not try more of my Italian rice and grain recipes? 

• Mushroom and mixed grain risotto
• Easy asparagus risotto
• Quick cook orzotto or pearl barley risotto
• Deliciously indulgent chocolate risotto with pears

And if you’re still hungry, here are some more pilaf style rice dishes: 

• Spicy rice
• Mushroom rice
• Pilau rice
• Pressure cooker Chinese rice
• Moroccan chicken and rice 
• Spanish chicken and rice
• Greek chicken and rice
• Other easy rice recipes

Cups First!  I’m British and based in the UK – but this is a Cups First Recipe – made and tested using standard American measuring cups, so you can be sure that it will work perfectly with no need for kitchen scales!   

For those who prefer to use kitchen scales to weigh your ingredients, I also weigh all the ingredients with my digital kitchen scales whilst testing and cooking.