Orzo Risotto with Garlic, Herbs, and Tomatoes

You can cook almost any kind of pasta with vegetables in broth as if it were rice, but the pasta called orzo in the United States—from the Italian word for barley—is really ideal for that purpose. I often whip up this kind of pasta-risotto just before lunch, with any combination of herbs from the garden and the intensely flavored tomato confit I keep in the freezer. This dish is inspired by skordomakarona, a soupy, broken spaghetti cooked in garlicky tomato sauce, which was a frequen