Cookware · Hearths
Yiouvetsi pot
A clay baking pot: orzo, tomato, and meat that finish in the oven the Greek way.
The journey
Yiouvetsi is a dish and a vessel — a clay pot wide enough for orzo to drink a tomato sauce around lamb or chicken. Greek home ovens still slide this pot in after the meat has browned, so the pasta tastes of the roast.
A metal casserole browns the top too fast. Clay keeps the orzo creamy at the edge.
In the kitchen
Brown the meat. Add tomato and stock. Stir in orzo and bake uncovered until the pasta is just tender. Rest before serving.
The Greek volume's Sunday pots assume this clay. A gastra is the wider cousin; this one is for pasta.