My style of cooking is more art than science. I view recipes as starting points. I like to substitute things and just add in whatever is handy or in season. So I appreciate dishes that make it easy to add ingredients. Pasta salad is one of those dishes.
Ingredients:
- Some pasta(I used the traditional tri color rontini)
- Good Olive Oil
- vinegar
- garlic
- Thyme, basil, oregano
- add ons
Cook the pasta according to the instructions.
While that cooks we are going to make a standard vinagrette dressing. I make this a lot. It is my go to dressing for almost any salad. A three to one ratio lies at the heart of the vinagrette. You use one part vinegar for each three parts of olive oil. For this I used six tablespoons of olive oil and two tablespoons of vinegar. I add one crushed or finely diced garlic clove per three tablespoons olive oil. So I used two. Then add the thyme, basil, and oregano to taste. I sometimes add the optional step of a quarter teaspoon of sugar per three tablespoons of olive oil. Give it a good whisk to combine everything.
Just dump the done pasta into the bowl with the vinagrette. Now for the add-ons. I went with sun dried tomatoes and sliced black olives because that is what I had in my pantry. All sorts of things work in this though. I've used feta cheese, cherry tomatoes, celery, and even some ham. Just use this as an easy way to deal with some old stuff lying around your kitchen.
Enjoy!
Wonky out.
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