Pasta Salad #5
This savory pasta salad can be served with all kinds of barbecue meat or smoked fish, but can also be eaten as a vegetarian main course accompanied by bread and your favourite beer or white wine.
Pasta and corn give body to this salad, while tomato and cucumber are the lighter fillers. Of course we throw in an aromatic blend of fresh herbs to add a Mediterranean flavour.
If served as a main course with bread, the quantities mentioned herein should be sufficient for mom and dad and two kids.
Pasta en Veggies
For this Pasta Salad recipe you will need the following ingredients:
| 1/2 pound |
| 1 |
| 10 dry ounces |
| 1/2 pound |
| 1/2 cup
|
| 1 |
| 1 |
| dry pasta, the picture shows "Pipette Rigate" |
| cucumber, diced |
| crispy corn (medium size can) |
| tomato, diced |
| mint leaves, prefereably the sturdier "Turkish" kind, shredded |
| hard apple, chopped |
| onion, finely chopped |
Basic "Italian" Salad Dressing
These are the ingredients for our basic "Italian" dressing recipe that we use for just about all of our pasta salads:
| 5 tablespoons |
| 2 tablespoons |
| 1 teaspoon |
| 1/4 teaspoon |
| olive oil (prefereably a fruity Extra Virgine) |
| white balsamico vinegar |
| black pepper, freshly ground |
| seasalt, no iodine |
Pasta Salad Herbs
For this Pasta Salad #5 the following fresh herbs are added to the above standard dressing:
| 2 tablespoons |
| 1 tablespoon |
| 1 tablespoon |
| 1 tablespoon |
| 5 cloves |
| rosemary, finely chopped |
| basilicum, chopped |
| oregano, chopped |
| sage, chopped |
| garlic, finely chopped |
Preparation
This Pasta Salad recipe is prepared as follows:
- |
Boil the pasta "al dente" in a large pan with 1 teaspoon of seasalt, drain, and stir in one tablespoon of olive oil to loosen the pasta. Let cool down. Instead of adding olive oil, the pasta can also be loosened by retaining some of the cooking water and pouring it over the pasta. |
- |
Allow the corn to drain. |
- |
|
- |
Wash the cucumber, cut in quarters lengthwise, cut out the seedy parts, cut the four strips lengthwise again to obtain eight strips, cut strips into dice. |
- |
Wash the tomatoes, cut in quarters, cut out seedy parts, and cut quarters into dice. |
- |
Wash mint leaves while on the stem and set apart. Mint is quite vulnerable, therefore you do not want to rip and cut the leaves until just before serving. Same goes for the apple. |
- |
Chop the onion as fine as possible. |
- |
Mix pasta and veggies thoroughly. |
Above activities can be done well before serving.
Right before serving:
- |
Rip the mint leaves from the stems, chop, and add to salad. |
- |
Wash and chop the apple, and add to salad. |
- |
Stir dressing one last time, add to salad, and mix salad to spread dressing evenly. |
Attack!
The Pitboss Suggests:
This pasta salad combines very well with:
Blue Smoke Grilled Chicken
Barbecue grilled chicken at its best.
When prepared in this way - by hot smoking and indirect grilling - even the cheapest chicken will taste fantastic!
Blue Smoke Barbecue Fries
Once you have tried these smoke-grilled potatoes,
you won't be able to resist making them every time you see some spare space on the grate...
You don't like pasta salads? Or maybe you'd prefer less calories?
No problem:
Juancho's Garden Salad
This colorful, easy and healthy salad has a surprisingly refreshing taste, and can be served with all
kinds of meat.
