My mom makes a mean pasta salad. Her mayo-less version is a mostly traditional Italian pasta salad which marinates in an Italian salad dressing for a few hours before enjoying.
This Grilled Vegetable Pasta Salad version is based on hers, but I decided to make it all the more summery but adding grill-friendly vegetables.
This is mostly a make ahead recipe. Right before serving (or while grilling up the main dish), you just add the veggies to the grill, then toss into the pasta.
If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you might have picked up on my obsession with pumpkin and butternut squash. I attempt to limit my gourd intake to the September and October months, but every now and then I still need my fix outside of those months. Butternut squash seems to be more socially acceptable, especially in pasta form. Buitoni’s Butternut Squash Agnolotti is the perfect way for me to have this delicious ingredient year-round.
Agnolotti is just a type of ravioli. This specific agnolotti is a “half-moon pasta filled with oven-roasted butternut squash, Impastata Ricotta, aged Parmesan and Grana Padano cheeses, accented with amoretti cookie crumbs. I traditionally use a brown butter sage sauce with butternut squash ravioli because they are a perfect pair. I wanted to try something a little different with this agnolotti, so I instead made a cold pasta salad. It has been so unbearably hot in Philadelphia that I thought this would be a perfect (and timely) twist.Also, don’t forget to enter my giveaway to win a bunch of Buitoni goodies and free Buitoni pasta!
Ingredients:
1 package of Buitoni’s Butternut Squash Agnolotti
½ cup butter
1 shallot, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh sage leaves, roughly chopped
½ cup walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped
A handful of golden raisins, or to taste
We have been having such a warm spring in Philadelphia. So if the weather is going to pretend it is summer, I will as well! To me, summer means tomatoes, corn, pesto, pasta salad, and of course, grilling.
Before I go into this recipe for Grilled Tomato Orzo Salad in a Tomato Bowl, first I want to tell you about Lipman Tomatoes. Lipman Tomatoes, a business-to-business company that has been supplying tomatoes and other vegetables to grocery stores and restaurants for 70 years, is about to launch a consumer-focused brand and website. Lipman contacted me about developing a recipe to celebrate their launch, which is the perfect opportunity for me to give into my “summer fever”. I decided to make a Grilled Tomato Orzo Salad served in a Tomato Bowl. (Update: the site is now live! Check out my recipe here!)
Lipman sent me an awesome assortment of their tomatoes. I decided to use the grape tomatoes for grilling, and the Vintage Ripe (a beautiful heirloom tomato) as my tomato bowls. The assortment also came with some cherry tomatoes and plum tomatoes so expect me to be on quite the tomato kick in the coming days!
Ingredients:
4 large Vintage Ripe tomatoes
1 cup orzo
4 cups vegetable broth
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 corn on the cob (or 1/3 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed)
8 oz mozzarella balls (if you cant get marinated mozzarella balls, even better!)
I am in a pasta salad making mood, so I decided to make one more batch for this weekend. I already made one pasta salad for this weekend, but I have a bunch of these ingredients on hand from other recipes and I don’t want them to go bad over the long weekend. I used a recipe from My Recipes as a base and substituted ingredients I already had, and ended up with this Pesto Pasta Salad!
Ingredients for the pesto:
1 or 2 bunches of packed fresh basil
1 bunch of packed fresh parsley
4 garlic cloves, minced
Juice and zest from 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/3 cup walnuts (or toasted pine nuts)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Ingredients for the salad:
1 box gemelli or other short pasta
1 small container plain 2 percent Greek yogurt
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
3 small cucumbers, sliced
1 red onion, chopped
1/2 cup feta cheese
Cook the pasta according to the “al dente” directions on the package. Drain and run under cold water. Set aside.
To make the pesto, combine the basil, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, pepper and walnuts in a food processor. (I ended up being just short of 1/3 cup walnuts, so I also added in a few toasted pine nuts.) Blend until smooth. Pour in olive oil and blend until there is a thick paste. Add the Parmesan and combine until blended. Add more salt and pepper, to taste.
Prepare all of your vegetables. After chopping the red onion, run it under cold water to remove some of the bite. Slice your cucumbers and halve your tomatoes.
Combine the pesto and Greek yogurt in a large bowl.
Add the pasta and vegetables and toss to coat.
Because I am making this for the weekend, I only made a tiny batch fully mixed so I could taste it. The pesto mixture is so so creamy that you honestly might not even need the feta. The tomatoes and red onions add a wonderful contrast to the pesto and the cucumbers add a nice crunch to the salad. I will try to take some photos this weekend of the fully assembled salad, but if it is anything close to what I just sampled, I think my friends will be happy.
Cook the pasta according to the “al dente” directions on the package. Drain and run under cold water. Set aside.
To make the pesto, combine the basil, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, pepper and walnuts in a food processor. (I ended up being just short of 1/3 cup walnuts, so I also added in a few toasted pine nuts.) Blend until smooth. Pour in olive oil and blend until there is a thick paste. Add the Parmesan and combine until blended. Add more salt and pepper, to taste.
Prepare all of your vegetables. After chopping the red onion, run it under cold water to remove some of the bite. Slice your cucumbers and halve your tomatoes.
Combine the pesto and Greek yogurt in a large bowl.
It’s almost July 4th weekend, so I am preparing a bunch of dishes for me to trek down to the beach.
I tend to make food that can marinate for a day or two so that I have time to make it without rushing around right before we leave. This time around, I decided to make a pasta salad based off my mom’s version.
