Thanks for the Facebook & Twitter love, Cabot Creamery Coop!
To go with last week's basil-marinated chicken, I tossed together a rather pretty pasta salad which not only looked and tasted quite good, but which also allowed me to use up a bunch of odds-and-ends. Pasta salad -- summer's answer to winter's "cleaning out the fridge" soup.Pasta Salad with Basil, Grape Tomatoes, and Bell PepperI served this pasta salad warm, because that was what I was in the mood for. When we eat the leftovers, I will add a little more sour cream-mayonnaise mix as the salad will be a little dry -- the warm pasta having soaked up a lot of the sauce.
1 small yellow bell pepper, cut into pea-sized pieces
¼ cup red onion, cut into pea-sized pieces
1½ cups grape tomatoes, halved width-wise
½ cup Cabot Serious Sharp cheddar, cut into pea-sized pieces
½ cup tightly packed fresh basil, coarsely chopped
½ cup light mayonnaise
½ cup light sour cream
1 tsp McCormick's salt-free lemon & pepper seasoning
8 oz Barilla Piccolini Mini Fusilli
Combine first five ingredients in a large bowl and set aside. Prepare pasta as directed. While pasta cooks, combine mayonaisse, sour cream, and lemon-pepper seasoning. Set aside. When pasta is cooked drain, retaining a little water. Add warm pasta and water to vegetable bowl, top with sour cream-mayonnaise mixture and stir well to combine.
Yum!
(I loved the colors in this salad so much I've used a photo of the chopped vegetables in my new blog header!)
Refreshing summer salads!
Next up for basil:
- Betty Crocker's "Basil Pesto"
- Real Simple's "Basil Lemonade"
- Jamie Oliver's "Roasted Cod with Cherry Tomatoes, Basil and Mozzarella" (I made this in 2006 & it was very good)
That really does sound good, I will have to copy and paste this in one of my blogs, for future reference. I can't wait to try it. I love pasta.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Next time, I might throw in some thawed frozen corn (but then I'd use an orange bell pepper to balance out colors).
ReplyDeleteThis is beautiful! Thanks for the Cabot love - I've posted a link on our Facebook page and Twitter! www.facebook.com/cabot & www.twitter.com/cabotcoop
ReplyDeleteAND I'm going to make this for dinner tomorrow!
~Wendy
I wanted to THANK YOU for coming over and linking up to THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS Week #30 "Summer Salads", we feature a different theme each Monday. We hope you come back next week for "Memorial Day BBQ Recipes". Have a great weekend!
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