Mediterranean pasta salad
( Insalata di pasta mediterranea)

Mediterranean cold pasta recipe

Preparation and cooking

• - First you must prepare tomato confit starting with 500g (1.1 pound) of fresh cherry tomatoes. Link to the recipe below
  You should prepare them since the day before.
• - Bring to a boil abundant salt water to cook pasta al dente stage.
• - Meanwhile ...
  Drain olives but put apart preserving olive oil.
  Transfer olives in a large bowl.
  Clean and wash fresh chives. Pat dry with absorbent kitchen paper and cut directly into the bowl with scissors.
  Add confit tomatoes too.
• - Drain pasta very well and transfer into the bowl.
  Stir very well and put apart.

Just before serving

• - Just before serving, remove the crust from slices of white bread.
  Cube every slice.
  Put preserving olive oil of taggiasca olives in a non-stick frying pan.
  Brown cubed bread in olive oil on medium heat, stirring frequently. A minute before turning off the stove add dried fruit too, after chopping it.
• - Pour your miixture into the bowl with pasta and stir with delicacy.
  Your Mediterranean pasta salad is ready to serve.

Note

Tips

• - As you can understand easily the downside of this pasta salad is the preparation in two stages but if you are well organized preparing bread and dried fruit in advance, the final stage is really fast. Moreover it has the unquestionable advantage of serving a cold pasta that is not completely cold. Do not underestimate it because not everyone likes cold pasta salad.
• - Both olives and tomatoes are oiled and should be sufficient to mix pasta with these two ingredients waiting to complete the other operations.
  However, if you see that pasta is too dry, add a couple of tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.
• - This pasta salad will be also good the next day but obviously your croutons will no longer be crunchy!
• - Use good-quality pasta to make pasta salad, on the contrary you may have a sticky dish.

Menu planning

• - As you've already read I suggests this pasta salad serves 12 and so it's special for your summer invitations: a cold dinner included alfresco dinner, a BBQ party and a meal, buffet-style.
• - This pasta salad goes well for full meals based on fish or meat.
• - It can also accompany frittatas, finger foods, salami, rice salads, other pasta salads, savory cakes, Italian focaccias ... think of it if you have to plan a meal, buffet-style.

Useful links for this recipe

• - Here's the recipe for tomato confit.
• - Read more about taggiasca olives
• - Interested in planning a cold dinner, Italian-style? a BBQ party?
• - The main ingredient of this dish is pasta. Are you sure to know how it is produced, the difference among different flours, rules for cooking it? follow the link!

Healthy eating

• - Pay attention to calories, fat and sugar. It may seem a low-calorie dish. In reality everything depends on the pasta dose: less than 50g (1 3/4 ounce) per head! Compare it to the suggested portion of 80g (2.8 ounces) per head. Calories, fat and sugar would be really different if pasta dose were the suggested one.
• - Fiber per serving: 2.9 grams.

Loretta

What's the right wine for " Mediterranean pasta salad "?

This Mediterranean pasta salad is to be combined and served with many other courses. It means that the best choice is to pair a table wine as Bardolino (red wine from Veneto) or bubbles as Italian prosecco or a rosé wine from Salento (Apulia), Abruzzo, Tuscany, Sicily ... Look at our directory dedicated to wines to choose the best for you.