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Monday, August 9, 2010

5-Color Balsamic Pasta Salad


I wanted to share one of my favorite summer pasta dishes.  It is absolutely delicious and so easy (and quick) to make.  Perfect for the busy mom who is juggling kids, making dinner, catching up with hubby at the end of the day, enjoying a cocktail, feeding a cat and 2 dogs and doing dishes - all at the same time.

5-color Balsamic Pasta Salad

This pasta salad is great as meal on its own.  It is served at room temp or luke warm, so it’s perfect for warm summer evenings.   The recipe is vegetarian, but you can easily add some (mild) sausage or pieces of hard salami to the dish to add some protein.  I have tried it with the salami – yum!

Ingredients:


9 oz. Farfalle [bow-tie pasta] - I usually boil the whole 12 oz. Bag and save some pasta for the next as a kids’ meal with some added parmigiano cheese and garlic.
8 oz. Ciliegine mozzarella [cherry-sized balls] (You can use regular sized mozzarella as well, just cube it in 1” pieces)
6 oz. Black pitted olives (drained) and halved
3 tomatoes, seeded and diced in 1” pieces
1 1/2 – 2 cups chopped fresh basil
1/8 cup balsamic vinegar (use more or less according to your liking)
Salt & Pepper to taste
1/2 cup good olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic (depending on the size and how much you like garlic – we LOVE it) - minced
Parmigiano cheese, grated

Directions:


Boil the pasta according to the directions on the bag. 

In a bowl put together the mozzarella, halved olives, tomatoes and basil.  Toss it with the balsamic vinegar and add salt and pepper to taste.

When the pasta is done, drain it in a colander and add it to the other ingredients. 

Poor the olive oil in the pan that you used to boil the pasta in.  When the oil is hot, toss the garlic in and stir.  When the garlic becomes aromatic, take the pan immediately off the heat.  You don’t want the garlic to turn brown as it will become bitter!!!!  Poor the olive oil and garlic over the salad and stir gently.

Serve with Parmigiano cheese and enjoy!!
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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yum! I can't wait to try this!

Diana Chastain said...

I love that stuff! My husband found that recipe on Rachael Ray and makes it every so often. SO GOOD!

HRH Mommy said...

WHAT?!?! Rachael Ray has this recipe as well?? I've been making this since I was in grad school in 1999!!

*~Petra~* said...

Any time I hear the word "balsamic" my mouth starts watering. This sounds awesome. Thanks for sharing :)

Anonymous said...

You know, I just happened to see this in the 'you might also like' area. I'm definitely going to try this. I really dread cooking in the summer - I'm not big on summer food - so I look for pasta salads. I think it'll be right up our alley. I LOVE LinkWithin! LOL!

And just for the sake of saying... EVERY recipe has been done somewhere by someone... Great minds think alike. You can literally cook something original up in your kitchen and you know, guaranteed, it's been done before. More than likely, Rachel Ray could learn a thing or two from our blogs. ;)

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