Mediterranean-ish Pasta Salad

This is what I like about pasta salads: they’re easy to make and adapt to your tastes, they can be prepared ahead of time, and they are a relatively inexpensive yet filling dish to serve at a party, shower or other such function where you want to feed people without spending too much money. This is what I don’t like about pasta salads: just about everything else.

Maybe this is because when I think of pasta salad I immediately picture a bland mixture of tri-color pasta, broccoli, and black olives drenched in overly sweet Italian dressing, but even as I type that I realize that even the most artisan cold pasta creations from Tony Caputo’s don’t really do it for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll eat pasta salad (I’ll eat just about anything, really) but it’s never something I go out of my way to procure. I guess at the end of the day I just prefer my pasta served hot (preferably drenched in some kind of tomato cream sauce) and my salads to consist primarily of vegetables.

But like most of my deeply held convictions, I eventually came across an exception to my apathy toward pasta salad. It came in the form of a Mediterranean style pasta salad that my older sister created for a family dinner, and which I have susequently adapted and made for a handful of bridal showers, book club gatherings, etc. In my opinion, what sets this pasta salad apart is the homemade Italian dressing and the way it mingles with the oil of the sun-dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts to create a complex blend of flavors; the high ratio of other ingredients to the pasta (of course, if you like more pasta you can always change this aspect of the recipe, but I prefer more of the other stuff); and the use of whole wheat pasta, which lends a nutty depth to the dish. If there were ever a reason to reconsider my culinary opinions, this pasta salad is it.

Elena's Pasta Salad

When I made this pasta salad for a book club last week, I had every intention of measuring out the ingredients and writing everything down, since people often ask for the recipe and I’m tired of responding with, “well, you just kind of throw a bunch of stuff together…” But life happened and I did end up just throwing everything together in a hurry, like always. So just use these measurements as very loose guidelines and go with whatever ratio looks right to you. As mentioned above, I like to have an equal amount of pasta and non-pasta ingredients, but do whatever you like.

Also, some of the ingredients in this salad might sound fancy but they are actually a Costco shopper’s dream because they stay good for years. I bought big jars of artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, and kalamata olives at Costco for a good price and now they just sit in the back of my fridge until I need them.

1 pound whole wheat spiral pasta
About 1 cup artichoke hearts marinated in oil (not canned), quartered
About ¾ cup kalamata olives, pitted and halved
About ½ cup sundried tomatoes, sliced
About 8 oz. fresh mozzarella, cut into bite-sized cubes
About ¾ cup diced tomatoes (I had some baby heirloom tomatoes on hand, so I just used those cut in half)
1 ripe avocado, diced
About ½ cup Italian Dressing (recipe follows)

1) Cook pasta according to package directions and allow to cool to room temperature.
2) Once pasta is cool, place in a bowl with remaining ingredients and stir to combine. If making a day ahead, wait to stir in avocado and dressing until just before serving. Keep refrigerated.

Italian Dressing (via food.com)
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon grated parmesan cheese

Combine all ingredients in a bottle. Shake to blend. Allow flavors to blend about an hour or so, Will even be more flavorful the following day. Be sure to refrigerate any leftovers.

Green salad with beets, goat cheese, and candied pecans

As far as restaurants go, I am neither here nor there on the subject of The Cheesecake Factory. I know people who absolutely love this place and others who dismiss it as totally overhyped. I fall into neither camp, and consider Cheesecake Factory one of those places that I wouldn’t choose if the restaurant decision is up to me, but I’m perfectly fine with eating there should someone else pick it.

I can, however, recall a time when I had a pretty terrible experience at this restaurant. We went there with my in-laws and had to wait an unreasonable amount of time for a table (even by Cheesecake Factory standards), Mike’s meal arrived stone cold, and the salad I ordered wasn’t anything to write home about. It was called the french country salad or something like that and the description on the menu sounded right up my alley: greens tossed in a vinegarette dressing with roasted beets, pecans, and goat cheese. However, when the salad arrived it was swimming in dressing, the beets were mushy, and the goat cheese was limited to two small dabs (unusual for a restaurant that prides itself on huge portions).

As awful as the execution of this salad was, I still liked the idea of the ingredients together so when I found myself with both beets and goat cheese that needed to be used up, I decided to create my own version of it. I did a bit of googling to get ideas and it turns out that there are tons of variations of this salad out there. I drew inspiration from a few of the recipes and ended up with a simple salad that far exceeded the verison I sampled at Cheesecake Factory in every aspect except for the fact that I couldn't order a piece of white chocolate raspberry cheesecake after I finished it.

My version of the French Country Salad

I always feel like writing out quantities in salad recipes is kind of a waste since it’s tough to measure it out and you should really just go by how much of each ingredient you want in the finished product. So the quantities below really are just guidelines. And if you have some roasted asparagus on hand, I think it would make a great addition to this salad.

Even though I usually dismiss individual plating as too fussy, it really does work better for this salad. The first time I experimented with making it I made a huge bowl for my family’s Sunday dinner and it didn’t work too well because you really want a good balance of the ingredients and the dressing to thoroughly coat the salad and beets, which is harder to do in a large bowl than individual plates.

Salad:
2 medium beets, scrubbed
Olive oil
Sea salt
~6 cups salad greens
~4 oz. goat cheese

Candied Pecans:
2 cups pecans
1 tablespoon melted butter
½ cup brown sugar
½ tsp. vanilla

Dressing:
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
½ tablespoon honey

1) Make candied pecans by tossing the nuts with the butter and vanilla, then adding the brown sugar and stirring to coat the nuts.
2) Bake pecans on a foil-lined baking sheet at 375 for about 15 minutes, stirring halfway through. I would start checking them after ten minutes because the sugar can burn quickly. Once the nuts are golden brown and the sugar has solidified, remove them from the oven. Let cool completely.
3) Rub each of the beets lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with some salt. Wrap in tin foil and place on a baking sheet. Bake at 375 for about an hour (longer or shorter depending on the size of your beets), or until a fork goes through them easily.
4) Allow beets to cool, then peel and dice into small pieces.
5) Make dressing by whisking ingredients together. Drizzle desired amount of dressing over beets and greens and toss.
6) Divide salad evenly among plates and top with crumbled goat cheese and pecans.

Russian Salad

All right, I know I’ve already done my fair share of whining about the end of summer on this blog, but will you indulge me for just a little while longer? See, last night Mike and I ate the kind of meal that I know I will daydream about during the dark, cold winter months. Right now with the onset of fall I’m finding the prospect of rich soups and stews exciting, but I know once January hits and I’m staring down yet another root vegetable my mind will inevitably wander back to the simple freshness of summer meals. In this case, grilled teriyaki salmon and zucchini, quinoa with mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes, corn on the cob (my very favorite food), and the tomato-and-cucumber concoction my family refers to as “Russian Salad.”

I really don’t know why, since my family is Russian and many of the salads served at my parent’s house are decidedly influenced by that heritage, this particular salad was bestowed that title. But that mystery is not what matters here. What matters is that, after you see the brief list of ingredients for this salad, you must not turn up your nose and dismiss it as something that could only be enjoyed by Eastern Europeans. Please trust me when I tell you that sour cream, when combined with juicy, garden-fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, loses its thick creamy density and transforms instead into a pleasantly light, tangy, pink (!) dressing that some of us (not going to mention any names here) have been known to slurp from the bottom of the bowl after the substantial part of the salad has been eaten.

Earlier this summer I made a variation of this salad from one of Ina Garten’s cookbooks. It was way more complicated and not nearly as good. I think simplicity definitely wins out in this case. However, because this recipe is so simple, you want to use only the best and freshest ingredients. Meaning underripe hothouse tomatoes and flavorless cucumbers aren’t gonna cut it. Use only the tomatoes and cucumbers that you would want to eat all by themselves; the kind that (sigh) are only available in the summer.

Russian Salad



1 ripe tomato (I used a bunch of halved cherry tomatoes in the photo above)
1 ripe cucumber
½ small red onion, thinly sliced (I usually leave this out)
Sour cream
Salt, to taste
Minced fresh dill, if desired (I rarely have the dill on hand-this salad is fine without it but even better with the dill)

1) Peel cucumber and cut in half lengthwise, then thinly slice.
2) Cut tomato into pieces approximately the size of the cucumber
3) Combine tomato, cucumber and onion (if using) in a bowl and add a heaping tablespoon (the eating kind, not a measuring spoon) of sour cream.
4) Stir together and add salt and dill to taste. You can also add more sour cream if you think it’s necessary. It’s hard to add too much because the excess will just get watery and sit in the bottom of the bowl- it won’t coat the other ingredients.
5) Let the salad sit for about 5 or 10 minutes before serving.