As long as we have dry and sunny 95 degree days, I'll still be posting salad recipes no matter what month we're in. Southern California is baking hot, the power keeps going on and off and now the kids are on minimum days for the rest of the school week.
The last thing anyone wants to do is switch on the oven and turn their house into the sun. To make this tomato mozzarella pasta salad you'll still need to turn on a burner, but that's still better than a 400-degree oven full of lasagne right?
This salad couldn't be any simpler, seriously I wouldn't lie to you but there's still a few rules to follow, rules are good. Once your bowtie pasta is cooked, make sure to rinse it under some cold water to get rid of the starch.
It'll prevent a bowl full of sticky pasta, If I'm making a pasta recipe that has a heavier sauce then I'll skip the rinsing because the starch helps the sauce stick to the pasta.
Let's play with the crazy good olive oil that sits in the very back of your cupboard. Mix that olive oil with some minced garlic and oregano, high-five, you just made your dressing.
Ciliegine are small balls of mozzarella each one about the size of a cherry. I used Angelo and Franco's Ciliegine and they were still a bit bigger than I wanted so I halved them.
We could just toss it and eat it right now, but I have a special place in my heart for Parmesan.
There's always a wedge of Parmesan in my fridge, my kids eat it by the chunk and I add it to almost everything I cook. Fresh basil and green salad leaves bring this whole dish from pasta to pasta salad.
Serve this as a side dish or add some grilled chicken or shrimp and call it dinner, Sauvignon Blanc screams to go along with it, just an FYI.
A fresh tasting and easy pasta salad full of mozzarella, Parmesan and healthy greens.
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