Mediterranean Pasta Salad
A super light and refreshing pasta salad
Perfect for your summer cookout because it can be served and enjoyed chilled, warm, or room temperature.
Ingredients
1/2 box Farfalle pasta, cooked al dente to box instructions in salted water
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
2 tbsp capers, drained
1 cup mixed greens, roughly chopped (arugula works here)
1/2 cup good olive oil
Sooo pretentious Barefoot Contessa of me I know…but I always have two bottles in my pantry – a huge jug of off-brand whatever-is-on-sale olive oil for cooking with and then a small bottle of “nice” stuff for any recipe that involves eating it “raw” like a dressing. Get a bottle of Bertolli extra virgin when they go on sale. Right now, I’m using a bottle I got while on vacation.
Store your olive oil away from heat and light as much as possible. In the fridge if you have room, otherwise it can go rancid. You’ll know it’s turned by the smell.
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
A few shakes dried oregano
Juice of 1/2 lemon (1-2 tablespoons)
1/2 cup feta crumbles
Huge handful flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
Instructions
In a large bowl, combine olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, herbs, and a big pinch of salt, reserving a pinch of parsley for garnish. Whisk furiously until you have a vinaigrette. Fold in tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, capers, and mixed greens, and mix to combine.
Migrate pasta straight from the pot of water when it is finished cooking with a slotted spoon and mix all to combine. As the warm pasta continues to steam in the bowl, it will wilt the greens a bit and absorb some of the vinaigrette.
If serving warm, garnish with herbs and feta and plate. If serving chilled or packing for a meal prep, cover and refrigerate for 3 hours.
When folding in tomatoes etc, you could sub olives for capers or add in some chopped olives with the capers if you have them. If you do, I would say add less salt into the vinaigrette, because you don’t want to overdo the salinity level.
