Friday, July 9, 2010

Tomato Feta Basil Pasta Salad

I have long associated pasta salads with the soggy, mayo drenched affairs seen at church barbecues. Furthermore, I never understood the reasoning behind cold pasta. Why have pasta cold when it is so very delicious hot?

This was before I moved to a place with no air conditioning. Yesterday it was 88 degrees in my house, and there was no way in this apt simulation of hell that I was going to turn on the stove, oven, toaster or any heat-emitting device. In the middle of the night, when with all the windows open and fans blasting the house had chilled to a comfortable 75 degrees, I mass produced cooked pasta, meat, and rice so today I could pull them out of the fridge to make oddities such as pasta salad.

Steering clear of mayo, I made this baby with stuff I had laying around. It's fresh and light and totally fulfilling. Give it a try!

3/4 lb cooked whole wheat penne pasta, cooled (DO NOT over cook--if refrigerating overnight, knock a couple minutes off the cook time)
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/4 C feta cheese, crumbled (or to taste)
1/2 C sun dried tomatoes in oil (thank you, Costco)
Big bunch of basil, sliced in to ribbons (thank you, garden)
1 TBS good olive oil
1 TBS good balsamic vinegar
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Toss ingredients together and serve.

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