Pasta Salad. It was there with a lot of other food you would probably prefer not to eat but nevertheless find huge helpings of it on your plate. Don't get me wrong here, I love pasta, but I don't think salads are its finest hour usually lacking in flavor and squandering calories, and Julia's is more of the same.
My good friend and O'Dea parent, Laura Girardot, invited me to bring a dish, drink some wine and buy some raffle tickets at last night's annual event. Several hundred ladies and I all loaded up plates with obscene amounts of food in preparation for winning some of the hundreds of raffle prizes. Incredibly I won so many times that one participant commented later that I would be a fool if I didn't stop for a lottery ticket on the way home. Apparently I am.
My dish to share was Pasta Salad with Fresh Tomato and Basil. The master in this case was simply how to cook the pasta, with several recipes appearing on the next page with different ideas on how to use it.
She recommends using any pasta except the macaroni type because those with holes may fill up with an overwhelming amount of dressing. The cooking directions are the same as you find on any box of pasta: bring 8 quarts of water to boil, after it boils add 2T salt and 1T olive oil and the pasta. Boil it uncovered until it is perfectly done, determine this by tasting pieces frequently as it nears the recommended cooking time listed on the package. When it is ready drain it in a colander and then gently shake it to ensure that all the water has been removed. Then immediately add a tablespoon or two of olive oil to which you have added a little salt and pepper and maybe a clove or two of pureed garlic.
As soon as the pasta has cooled down you are ready to continue with any recipe you choose. The Fresh Tomato and Basil recipe calls for the pasta to be flavored with a few tablespoons of viniagrette, for which I chose the bottled Bernstein's Italian Dressing and Marinade. First I lined my salad bowl with Rainbow Swiss Chard and then dumped in the pasta, made a well in the center which I lined with fresh basil that I had shredded with my Ulu knife. An Ulu knife is an Alaskan native tool that looks very similar to a pastry blender, but with a curved blade instead of the thin metal rods. You use it by rocking back and forth on a slightly hollowed out cutting board.
Next I filled the hollow with Julia's Fresh Tomato Relish, for which I chose several varieties of heirloom tomatoes. They needed to be peeled, which is fairly easy, just drop them into boiling water for 10 seconds and when they come out core them and the skin comes right off. Next slice them in two the fat way and gently squeeze to remove the juice and seeds. I found this method worked fine for the juicier varieties, but the meatier ones needed help from my pinkie. When they were as dry as a tomato can get I diced them and gently mixed them with 1T diced shallots, 1T red wine vinegar, 1T olive oil and salt and pepper.
Finally I sprinkled about 6 oz. of feta cheese around the edge of the pasta and added a sign telling all the ladies about my blog and how much I would appreciate a comment from them. Here's hoping.
The Bottom Line
Cooked Pasta for Salads: Thumbs Up
Pasta Salad with Fresh Tomato and Basil: Thumbs Down
Fresh Tomato Relish: Thumbs Down
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment