Creamy Italian Pasta Salad
Favorite Brand Name 365 Pasta Recipes Copyright 1997
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced I crushed it with the salt
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil or 1 teaspoon dried basil I used dried
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 ½ cups spiral pasta, cooked, rinsed with cold water and drained I used about 2/3 of a 1 lb box
1 cup quartered cherry tomatoes I used roma tomatoes, seeds removed
½ cup coarsely chopped green bell pepper
½ cup slivered pitted ripe olives I used a can of sliced olives
In a large bowl, combine mayonnaise, vinegar, garlic, basil, salt and black pepper. Stir in pasta, tomatoes, bell pepper and olives. Cover; chill.
Makes about 6 servings.
Last night was a simple night. I only ate this pasta salad and hubby had a deer steak and pasta salad. I was going to make myself a veggie burger but this salad was filling enough.
I can freestyle pasta salad pretty well but then I couldn't blog about it here so I made this simple recipe. I think I can say with confidence that we enjoyed this since there wasn't even one noodle left. Hubby really loves pasta salad and my son scarfed down quite a bit of this too. I used 2/3 of a 1 lb box of pasta and that worked great since we ate it right away. I'm not sure if the recipe would have been too dry if we didn't eat it right away since I used so much more pasta than it called for. Personally, it doesn't seem to matter what the dressing/pasta ratio is, the pasta always seems to suck up all the dressing when I make any type of pasta salad and then let it sit.
Question of the Day: Can you make a pasta salad that stays creamy?
Believe it or not,I have only made pasta salad a couple of times because I can't seem to find one that I really like.I had actually planned to make a greek version tonight.I've seen several recipes on blogs in the past few days,must be because spring is in the air.
ReplyDeleteOh...just how many cookbooks do you have?lol
My husband's grandmother makes the creamiest macaroni salad. The macaroni never sucks up the dressing. I can't figure it out and she's always been reluctant to give out her recipes so I'm afraid to outright ask for the recipe.
ReplyDeleteEmily,
I haven't counted my cookbooks. It's not an outrageous amount, maybe a couple of hundred. I have to pace myself - I'm only in my 30s and hopefully I'll be collecting cookbooks for many more years.
I guess I've never been concerned about creaminess, since I don't mind if it's not. I've never used a recipe for pasta salad. I always make mine with ripe olives, onion, celery, mayo, s & p and usually basil.
ReplyDeleteJan