Pasta Salad

Pasta salad is a refreshing change to garden salads but no less nutritious. Just add your preferred type of pasta to your favorite salad ingredients and you are on your way to creating your own pasta salad recipe.

The traditional noodle used for pasta salad is usually Fusilli, which is a spiral shaped pasta. Rainbow Fusilli is generally available at supermarkets and can be used to create a colorful pasta salad. Other fun pasta shapes that can be used for cold pasta salad recipes are:

• Campanelle– meaning “bells”, this is a small cone shape with ruffled edges.
• Farfalle– meaning “butterflies”, this pasta is shaped like a bowtie.
• Cavatappi– is a corkscrew shaped pasta, just as the name implies.
• Ditalini– These “little thimbles” can be used to make a fun pasta salad.
• Elbow Macaroni- is great in cold pasta salads that have a thicker sauce.
• Orzo– The name implies a barley grain shape and that is what this pasta looks like.
• Mostaccioli– The “small mustache” shape works well with pasta salads that have longer ingredients like julienne sun dried tomatoes and julienne bell peppers.
• Riccioli- The “curl” of this ridged pasta makes it fun to work with and the ridges hold any dressing you want to use.
• Rotini– The “spirals” of this pasta can add a fun twist to your salad.
• Tortiglinoni– these narrow tubes of ridged pasta are good for salads with a lighter dressing.
• Tubini– This medium-sized tube pasta is similar to tortiglinoni but it doesn’t have the ridges.
• Tripolini- are tiny bow ties-shaped pasta.
• Rotelle– are wheel shaped pasta. The spokes of the wheels are great for capturing the other ingredients of the pasta salad.
• Ziti- these tube shaped pasta are traditional for some pasta recipes.

You can generally use whatever shape you like to make your pasta salad but sometimes the shape is traditional for a reason. If your dressing is light, ridged pasta works better. If your salad uses ingredients that are cut rather large, orzo works better. The best part of pasta salad is that you can experiment with different pasta shapes and find the one that works best for you.

Regardless as to how you want to serve your pasta salad, hot or cold, you will need to cook your pasta. The best way to cook pasta is to use a lot of water. In order to cook two cups of pasta, follow this process:

• 2 cups of pasta
• 1 gallon of water (or more)
• 2 tablespoons of salt

1. Bring the water to a boil.
2. Add the salt and stir to dissolve.
3. Add the pasta and stir it. It's best to stir the pasta for the first minute or two as it cooks or it will clump up.
4. The cooking time for the pasta that is listed on the package is only a guideline; test the pasta after about 4 minutes. Thicker pastas take more time to cook.
5. The pasta is done when it gives slight resistance when bitten. This is al dente.
6. Rinse the pasta under cold water. This will wash off some of the pasta's starch, which becomes slimy once the pasta has cooled.

This salad is very flavorful and goes well with dry white wines. If you are serving this as a side to an entrée, consider strongly flavored meats like lamb or venison.

• 2 ½ cups of dried penne pasta
• 1 head of radicchio, torn into pieces
• 1 head of romaine lettuce, torn into pieces
• 7 tablespoons of chopped walnuts
• 2 ripe pears cored, peeled, and sliced
• 7 basil leaves, torn into pieces
• 1 bunch of watercress, rough chopped
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 4 tomatoes quartered
• 1 small red onion sliced thinly
• 1 large carrot grated
• 10 ounces of feta cheese (or any goat cheese you happen to like) diced
• Salt

1. Cook the pasta properly.
2. Drain the pasta and rinse it in cool water.
3. Place the pasta in your refrigerator until cool.
4. Mix the radicchio and lettuce in a bowl.
5. Top with the lettuce with the pasta, then add the walnuts.
6. Top with the sliced pears, basil, and watercress.
7. Place the salad in your refrigerator.
8. Mix the lemon juice, olive oil, vinegar, and minced garlic together in a bowl.
9. Pour the dressing over the pasta salad and toss to mix.
10. Top the salad with the tomatoes, onion slices, grated carrot, and diced feta.
11. Toss the salad again and cover with plastic wrap.
12. Let the salad chill for about an hour before serving.

Pasta salads are fun, light, and easy to make. They are a great alternative to heavier meals during hot weather and are a great way to get your kids to eat their fruits and veggies. .

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