I love a great pasta salad loaded with fresh veggies and coated with a tasty vinaigrette, but I rarely make it because I had never been completely satisfied with the results – until now. I found an article, Five Steps to Perfect Pasta Salad, on Allrecipes and it lists the five steps you need to create a perfect pasta salad.
The author, Pam Anderson, starts out by saying, “I teach cooking classes across the country, and as often as a possible, I demonstrate pasta salad. Why? Because people make it all the time. (When’s the last time you attended a potluck that didn’t have a pasta salad?) But rarely do these sturdy, colorful, economical salads taste as good as they look. They can be dry, bland, oily, sharp or uninteresting.”
So with Pam’s five steps in mind I created an irresistible, perfect pasta salad using veggies and herbs from my garden.
Step 1. Pasta. I used a box of Barilla Plus Elbows. I boiled it as directed in a gallon of boiling water seasoned with 2 tablespoons of salt.
Step 2. Key ingredients. She recommends using 2 lbs. of at least 3 major ingredients. I used crookneck squash, carrots, cucumber, grape tomatoes, and left over rotisserie chicken, cut into bite sized pieces. The squash and the carrots needed to be cooked a bit before adding so that they were tender-crisp. She recommends adding the vegetables to the cooking pasta during the last minute of boiling.
Drain but do not rinse the pasta and the vegetables. Pour them onto a large-lipped cookie sheet to cool and dry.
Step 3. Intense flavors. Add 1/2 cup of a strong flavored ingredient. I used grated Parmesan cheese.
Step 4. Onions & herbs. “No matter what else is in your pasta salad, always add three large green onions, sliced, or half of a small red onion, diced.” I added green onions that I had already chopped and were in the freezer. (I was tired of throwing away green onions that would go bad in the fridge because I only needed one or two. Now I chop up all the green onions and what I don’t need I put in a Ziploc in the freezer.)
Also add 3 tablespoons minced fresh herbs and/or 2 teaspoons orange or lemon zest. I used lime zest that I had in the freezer and it added a really fresh flavor, and fresh parsley from my garden.
Step 5. Dressing. Add 1 cup dressing to coat the salad. Although you can prepare the salad in advance, she recommends dressing the salad only 15 minutes before serving. She gives two recipes for dressings, but I was given a bottle of Wish-Bone Bountifuls Tuscan Romano Basil Dressing to try, so I used that on the salad and it was terrific. I looked for it at the grocery store to buy another bottle, but they were out. So I guess I’m not the only one who really liked it.
Thanks to Pam I’m no longer intimidated by pasta salad. She has so many great ideas and suggestions in the article, it really is something that you should print out and keep as a guide. I know I have!
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I love to bake, especially cookies, cakes, and pies. I’ll post my adventures in the kitchen, my favorite new recipes, as well as our family favorites.
Such a great post! I put green onions in everything (I LOVE them!), but I hadn't ever thought about chopping them up and putting them in the freezer (another one of those, "Why didn't I think of that?" moments for me…).
YUM! Wish you lived closer so I could invite myself over for a bowl.
Looks perfect to me:)
This really perfect for my kids at home
This looks so refreshing and colorful, even kids will love to eat this
Barbara, I made this a few months ago after reading Pam's article in the Sunday insert. I thought it was great also. She took a popular recipe item and broke it down in parts so that anyone can make infinite varieties of pasta salad — very creative. Pam consistently comes up with great ideas/recipes and I read her Sunday column faithfully.
Great tips, I love the one about green onions, I don't buy them as much, because I hate to thrown them away, but ill start freezing them now, I do the same with ginger
Barbara your pasta salad looks great! I love pasta salad but it seems to be a huge challenge to find a good recipe. I have a recipe on my blog for Antipasto Pasta Salad, that is fabulous and very flavorful but it is a bit more work than this one. I'll be making it in the near future. Thanks for posting it!!!
I love a good pasta salad. I have been known to eat them for breakfast!!
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This looks great! I love pasta salad in theory but many of them do fall short; this one really looks like a great one. And thanks for your tip about freezing green onions – I am also getting really tired of throwing them away!
Great pasta salad tips. Your version looks delicious!
That looks wonderful!
Such a nice and colorful pasta salad…great for a BBQ!
great tips, the salad looks wonderful!
Yum! What a nice looking pasta salad. Thanks for the tip on freezing green onions. Do they retain their crunchy texture when thawed?
Thanks for all the nice comments!
Palidor I haven't really tasted one by itself, because I just assumed they wouldn't have a crunch after thawing, so I use them in a sauce or salad where they aren't the star. In fact, in the pasta salad I just tossed them frozen in to the boiling water with the pasta and the vegetables for a minute rather than thawing them.
This salad looks so colorful and delicious! Lovely photo!
This is a great post Barbara! And it's true, you always see a pasta salad but more often than not, it's a bit disappointing for one reason or another. Great tips!
This sounds delicious! I love your add-ins!
Thanks for sharing this info. I never thought to freeze the green onions. I have thrown away so many! The dressing you used sounds tasty. Will have to keep my eye out for it.
I think those steps sound pretty good. Maybe I too can try to make pasta salad… Yours looks lovely and colourful
This is wonderful advice and I LOVE the tip for freezing the green onion. Why didn't I think of doing this???
Looks great Barbara!
This looks great for the Labor Day weekend!
Looks healthy-ly delicious! My first time here and loving it!
That pasta salad looks great and thanks for posting all the tips.
That is one flavorful salad! Sounds and looks perfect!
I love the addition of parmesan cheese…
Cheers,
Rosa
Pasta salad – so well received and loved! This looks terrific.
very helpful info! i love pasta salad
I was thinking of making a pasta salad this weekend! Thanks for the tips. Especially the green onions. I'm always throwing them out too!
Wow-the perfect pasta salad..it looks fantastic!! Thanks for the wonderful tips.
Wow, some really neat tips! Thanks for sharing them. I'm especially intrigued by the orange/lemon zest idea. I've been adding orange juice and lemon zest to my tomato soup recipe lately and it really makes a difference. Bet it would be good in pasta salad, too
I love pasta salads! A good pasta salad would definitely make my list of favorite foods. You salad looks great, the colors just pop! I want to grab a fork and dig in!
What a fabulous post, Barbara! Seriously. I agree that pasta salads often look better than I taste–I will for sure be following this advice! Also, thanks for the tip on green onions. I am always throwing away ones that have gone bad–so I'll do this trick from now on.
Great tips for a first rate pasta salad. Freezing the onions is a terrific suggestion. I always have a few left overs.
Great tips!
Never get tired of pasta salad…and this one is for sure one of those I must try…and I want to use my mini butterfly pasta!
Thanks, Barbara, for sharing this great recipe!
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Thanks for sharing the secrets to success in a pasta sald. I stopped making them, a while back, because they always seemed to be lacking. Now, I may face the challenge and do it right.
I love pasta salad! Great post! Looks delicious!
There are SO many wonderful pasta salad recipes out there and it amazes me how they're all just slightly different. Love the flavors in yours.
I love making pasta salads and throwing so many different things in.
Lemon zest- I would have never thought of that. Excellent post.