Pasta Salad

Preparation

1. Like most Mediterranean appetizers of this kind, pasta salad is made from boiled, slightly warm pasta with fresh greens and vegetables, dressed with natural olive oil or sauces based on it.

2. Prepare the ingredients. For the salad I recommend ready-made mixes of salad greens and frozen or fresh green beans. You can replace them with flat green beans, string bean pods or green peas.

   

Greens and tomatoes

1. If you bought a ready-made mix of salad greens, just transfer it to a bowl. A bunch of fresh lettuce needs to be washed, dried very thoroughly and torn into pieces.

   In that case, use several kinds of lettuce and add arugula, spinach and so on.

2. Sprinkle the torn leaves with a pinch of salt and toss.

3. Cut the cherry tomatoes in halves and add them to the bowl.

   

Beans and pasta

1. While the salt dissolves, boil the green beans. Pour water into a saucepan, salt it lightly and add 0.5 tsp of sugar (2 g): this helps partly keep the green color of the beans or peas.

2. Boil the beans over low heat until done, 15 mins. Peas cook faster, up to 10 mins, and green beans also take no more than 10 mins.

3. Let the beans cool to room temperature.

5. At the same time, cook the pasta until al dente: add 14 g of salt to 2 l of boiling water (7 g per 1 l), add the pasta and cook over high heat for the time on the package; the center should remain slightly firm.

6. Let the pasta cool until slightly warm.

7. In a bowl, combine the pasta and beans with the pesto sauce. You can make it yourself; it is easy if you have the ingredients.

   

Assembling and serving

1. Transfer the dressed pasta and beans to the bowl with the greens and tomatoes. Sprinkle with a little dried oregano.

2. Gently toss the pasta salad. All the components are fairly large, so make sure they are distributed evenly.

   If the appetizer seems a bit “dry” to you, feel free to add more pesto or olive oil.

   

3. Divide the salad among salad bowls and sprinkle with grated Parmesan. The appetizer is ready to serve.

   As additional ingredients you can use fresh young radishes, olives and small crunchy croutons: cube a baguette and fry it. Avoid very watery ingredients such as cucumbers and mozzarella. You can add a handful of fresh basil leaves.