Pasta salad with bocconcini and tomatoes
( Pasta fredda mozzarelline e pomodoro )

Recipe for pasta salad with bocconcini and tomatoes

Preparation and cooking

• - Bring to a boil abundant salted water for cooking pasta.
  Salt your water as soon as it begins boiling.
• - Chop onion and let it simmer in a little water using a non-stick frying pan.
• - Meanwhile drain your bocconcini of mozzarella.
  Clean, wash and pat dry chives and basil leaves with absorbent kitchen paper.
• - When the water you've added for onion is running out, add chopped tomatoes too.
  Stir and continue cooking, few minutes.
  Let your sauce be well reduced!
  Just before turning off the stove add basil leaves (chopped with your hands) and chives (cut with scissors).
• - Cook the pasta you've chosen.
  Drain it.
  Run under cold water to stop cooking and drain again very well.
• - Add your pasta to tomato sauce.
  Pour in olive oil.
  Cut in your bocconcini.
  Stir with delicacy.

Just before serving

• - Let your pasta salad rest, at least 30 minutes, before serving.
  If you prepare this pasta dish some hours ahead chill until serving but remember to bring it back to room temperature and add bocconcini at last minute.

Note

Tips

• - Choose your favorite pasta shape for this pasta dish.

Menu planning

• - This pasta salad is too simple to be served in a special occasion menu unless the other courses are very elaborated or you have unexpected guests at last minute.

Healthy eating

• - Let's examine the positive and negative aspects of this dish.
• - Calories are not exactly few ... some of you may be surprised ... with so few ingredients and olive oil? but there is mozzarella!
• - For the same reason total fat are not few too.
• - So the conclusion is we can eat this pasta salad dish rarely even if simple to do and with few ingredients.
• - And we can't eat it often for another reason, related to the presence of mozzarella balls. Cheese is recommended once a week to avoid accumulating "bad" fats that raise cholesterol and are contributing to many cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes and senile dementia.
  This is the main reason why I use only 2 teaspoons olive oil.
• - On the contrary its positive aspect is the pasta my husband and I generally use: pasta made with whole emmer flour. This flour is rich in fiber (in fact this dish has 7.9 grams fiber) that reduce glycemic index. I remember you nutritionists recommend us to use wholemeal pasta each time we can.
  With regard to me and my husband we can say we have been no longer able to eat pasta made with durum wheat with satisfaction since we made this choice some years ago. Practically it seems to have no taste!

What's the right wine for " Pasta salad with bocconcini and tomatoes "?

The best choice according to me and my husband is matching a not very structured white wine, served cool!