Pasta and Raw Vegetable Salad

Pasta and Raw Vegetable Salad

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This is a salad I’ve been making for many years, and it remains a solid favorite with my family.  It’s never exactly the same each time I make it, because it depends on what fresh veggies are available when I’m putting it together.  Dress it with a simple vinaigrette, but you can easily use your favorite bottled vinaigrette as well.  Just give the salad a couple of hours to get cold before serving.

Pasta and Raw Vegetable Salad

Serves 6

Prep time: 45 minutes, plus at least two hours to refrigerate

Ingredients

  • One box of campanile (bell-shaped) pasta, or you can use rotini or farfalle
  • One seedless cucumber, skin on, cubed into half-inch pieces
  • Two medium tomatoes, seeds removed and chopped into small pieces
  • 1/2 cup chopped yellow peppers
  • 1/4 cup coarsely-chopped parsley
  • 6 scallions, chopped in small pieces
  • One carrot peeled and chopped into small cubes, parboiled until soft, about 8 minutes
  • 3/4 cup of broccoli florets, blanched in boiling water for two minutes
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

  1. You can also add baby cauliflower, zucchini, asparagus, celery, radishes, or almost any raw vegetable you have in the fridge – but not cabbage or kohlrabi, because their flavors will overwhelm the pasta.
  2. Boil campanile for ten minutes, then rinse in ice bath, drain, and set aside.
  3. Cook carrots and broccoli, rinse with cold water, drain, and add into pasta.
  4. Chop other vegetables and mix into pasta.
  5. Pour half the vinaigrette dressing over the pasta and vegetables and mix thoroughly, then place in refrigerator for several hours. 
  6. Before serving, mix salad so that oil is evenly distributed throughout the pasta and add in more vinaigrette if it seems dry. 
  7. Mix well and adjust the salt and pepper.

Simple Vinaigrette Dressing:

Serves 6

Prep time: fifteen minutes

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup virgin olive oil
  • 2 cloves of crushed garlic
  • 1 teaspoon French brown mustard
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
  • 1/4 teaspoon of salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon of pepper
  • 2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • Squirt of lemon juice

Directions

  1. Whisk ingredients together until they are emulsified.
  2. Pour over pasta salad, reserving some to add in before serving, if needed. 
  3. It’s nice for a little bit of the dressing to be absorbed by the pasta while it’s refrigerating – just don’t overdo it or the salad will feel greasy.

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