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Angie’s Marinated Pasta Salad

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December 12, 2018

After driving a circuitous route for two days (I’ll explain why in a minute), I got home to Santa Fe from Palm Springs last Wednesday to a surprise.

My husband and I had plans to attend the holiday party for the Department of Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico, where he is Associate Professor, on Friday.  The surprise was that the party was a potluck and we had to bring a dish.

So, there I was on Wednesday evening, exhausted after two days of driving, with no prior knowledge that I had to produce a dish for a Friday event, coupled with the logistic challenge that I had to leave home around noon on Friday and ultimately make it to the party in Albuquerque by 7:00 PM with a dish in tow that I could neither refrigerate nor heat up!

It didn’t take long before I settled on my cousin Angie Catanese’s Marinated Pasta Salad.  This is a recipe that I’ve been making for about 45 years and it never fails to please.  It has so much stuff in it besides pasta that it’s almost a misnomer to just refer to it as a pasta salad!

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I went grocery shopping on Thursday morning, assembled the salad Thursday afternoon, and the rest is history!

You might also enjoy my cousin Angie’s recipe for Pickled Hot Peppers.

 

The availability of pasta in many different shapes has ballooned over the decades. Cavatappi makes a great replacement for shells in this pasta salad.

Now, for an explanation as to why you haven’t heard from me in two months and what will be coming up for the blog…

In early October I went to Palm Springs to complete recipe testing for the Trio Restaurant Cookbook.  One can’t really test recipes for a cookbook at 8,000 feet in elevation so I spent five weeks in Palm Springs testing and finalizing over 125 recipes for the cookbook.  I had intended to continue posting to the blog during this time but very quickly found it impossible to fit in anything other than grocery shopping, recipe testing, and note-taking!

I got back to Santa Fe a few days before Thanksgiving then, less than a week after Thanksgiving was back on my way to California to go to the Consulate General of Italy in Los Angeles to apply for a visa.

In early January I am going to Italy to attend a three-month intensive course in Italian cuisine geared toward professional chefs at the Italian Culinary Institute.  Because I’ll be in Italy more than 90 days I need a visa.

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My visa appointment was Friday and I was planning on spending the weekend in Palm Springs then driving back to Santa Fe on Tuesday.  The consular official said my visa would be ready by Tuesday so, rather than trust my luck (and my passport) to FedEx, I decided to drive back to Los Angeles to retrieve my passport.

It took me 3 hours and 45 minutes to drive the 122 miles from our home in Palm Springs to the consulate!  I got my passport in about 5 minutes then did some shopping at Eataly, conveniently located across the street from the Italian Consulate.  (I’d love to know who was responsible for securing THAT location!)  I then reversed course and started the drive back to Santa Fe, passing within a few miles of our home in Palm Springs where I had started the day.  I spent the night in Payson, Arizona then finished the drive Wednesday (which is when this story began).

The entrance to the Consulate General of Italy in Los Angeles which is conveniently located across the street from Eataly!

While I’m in Italy I will most likely be posting fewer recipes than usual.  I hope to chronicle some of my experiences at the Institute and pass on some tips and pointers on Italian food.  I hope you’ll stick with me during that time.  When I return, I’ll be back to my regular schedule of posting recipes.

Oh, and by the way, judging from how the pasta salad disappeared at the party, I think it was a hit!

Print Recipe
 Angie’s Marinated Pasta Salad
There is so much “stuff” in this that it could easily be the basis of a light meal with just some bread and cheese. Angie’s original recipe called for shells but other types of medium-size pasta work just as well. In fact, I think the cavatappi are especially nice given their unusual shape. If you are making this when tomatoes are at their peak, use three medium-sized tomatoes in place of the cherry and grape tomatoes. You can use 2 cups of purchased Italian salad dressing instead of the homemade dressing if you’re so inclined, though the flavor will obviously be somewhat different.
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Course Pasta and Grains, Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces, Salads, Slaws and Dressings, Sides
Cuisine Italian-American
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 10 minutes
Passive Time 16 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Salad Ingredients
Dressing
Course Pasta and Grains, Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces, Salads, Slaws and Dressings, Sides
Cuisine Italian-American
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 10 minutes
Passive Time 16 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Salad Ingredients
Dressing
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Instructions
  1. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the dressing ingredients and set aside.
  2. Cook the pasta in abundantly salted water until just cooked but still slightly al dente.
  3. Meanwhile, cut-up all the ingredients.
  4. Onion
  5. Bell pepper
  6. Tomatoes
  7. Celery
  8. Genoa salami
  9. Pepperoni
  10. Provolone
  11. Oil-cured olives
  12. When the pasta is cooked, drain and rinse in cool water to stop cooking.
  13. Stir the pasta and diced onion into the dressing. Allow to cool to room temperature.
  14. When the pasta is cool, stir in all remaining ingredients.
  15. Refrigerate overnight before serving.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2018 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Pear, Celery and Arugula Salad with Lemon Dressing

10 Comments

December 26, 2016

I grew up in a family that put salad on the table at the same time as the rest of the meal.  I married into a family that does the same.  However, in the years between leaving home to go to college and getting married I most definitely converted to serving salad after the main part of the meal was over.  Notice, I didn’t say main course because the other change I made was thinking of the meal as comprising an antipasto (even if it is just a nibble of cheese and a cracker for a family meal) followed by, what Italians would call, the first course (il primo piatto) followed by a second course (il secondo piatto).

In an Italian meal, the first course is usually pasta, or soup, or risotto.  The second course  usually consists of meat or fish with several side dishes (contorni).  After that comes the salad.  Granted, there are exceptions to this sequence, even in Italy.  One of the most classic exceptions is serving Risotto alla Milanese with a breaded and fried veal chop.  OK, so these days, I try not to eat baby animals, so veal is pretty much off the menu at our house, but the point is Risotto alla Milanese is typically served with the meat, not before the meat.

The general rule that the sequence is antipasto, then first course, then second course, then salad was made abundantly clear when my Italian tutor had dinner at our house a few years ago.  For some reason, even though my in-laws grew up in Italy, we served spaghetti and meatballs (very good spaghetti and meatballs, mind you!).  Where it got interesting, however, is that we all ate the spaghetti and meatballs at the same time (for full disclosure, I didn’t touch my salad until afterwards).  My tutor, hailing from Italy however, ate her pasta first.  Only then did she put a meatball or two on her plate for her second course.  Only after that did she touch her salad!

When I am serving dinner for company, the salad always comes after the second course.  I’d rather not serve salad than serve it with the rest of the meal.  Salads, by design, have sharp dressings meant to cleanse the palate.  You can’t go back and forth between a subtly seasoned dish (whether it be pasta or fish or meat) and salad and do justice to the subtlety of the first.  The vinegar and/or lemon juice and/or mustard (and/or whatever else you put in your salad dressing) doesn’t allow that.  Forget what it does to the wine that you’ve paired with the dish!  If it’s just family, however, in the interest of domestic harmony, the salad goes on the table at the beginning.  I still don’t eat mine till the end but I can’t say the same for others.

Print Recipe
 Pear, Celery and Arugula Salad with Lemon Dressing
Pears add a welcome freshness to this salad that is a perfect antidote to winter when so little really good fresh produce is available. This may be a lot of pear for some but the sweet juicy taste is a great contrast to the crunch of the celery and the peppery bite of the arugula.
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Course Salads, Slaws and Dressings
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Salads, Slaws and Dressings
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. Squeeze about half a fresh lemon to make 2 ½ tablespoons of juice. Allow the juice to sit, uncovered, at room temperature for about an hour before using it to dress the salad. The flavor of the juice will improve.
  2. Remove the top of the celery stalks, the part where the center stalk gets much thinner and smaller stalks come off the sides. Reserve these pieces for another use. Cut the remaining celery stalks on a long diagonal to create thin long pieces.
  3. Using a sharp knife or cheese paring knife, cut about 18 curls of Pecorino Romano cheese.
  4. Peel the pears and cut into quarters lengthwise. Core the pears. Slice into thin wedges.
  5. Combine the lemon juice and olive oil. Shake well to combine.
  6. Toss the arugula and celery with about 2/3 of the lemon-olive oil dressing. Season with salt and pepper to taste and toss again.
  7. Divide the arugula and celery onto six plates.
  8. Toss the pears in the remaining lemon-olive oil dressing. Arrange the pear slices and Pecorino Romano cheese on top of the arugula. Season with freshly ground black pepper. Serve immediately.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2016 by VillaSentieri.com.  All rights reserved.

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