This is one of those recipes that’s better the next day. And even better the one after.
It’s a good base pasta salad recipe, so you can add anything else that you want to it (little bits of crispy bacon, other veggies, different kinds of cheese), but I think it’s perfect as is.
Old Fashioned Pasta Salad
16-oz. pasta twists
2 lbs. Gruyere or Emmentaler cheese, cubed
1 bunch scallions, chopped
10-15 cherry tomatoes, chopped
1 cup good olive oil
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
2 Tbls. oregano
4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
2 cloves of garlic, mashed
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated
2 cups croutons
1 bunch of romaine
My mother’s recipe reads: Combine all ingredients and enjoy.
Here’s how that breaks down
Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling, salted water until it’s a little past al dente. Drain and cool. Transfer to a large bowl and set aside.
Whisk together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, oregano, salt, pepper, and garlic. Pour this dressing over your pasta and toss to coat evenly.
Add in the parmesan a little at a time, sprinkling it by the handful and stirring to make sure it distributes evenly.
Add in the cubed cheese, croutons, and scallions. Toss again to combine thoroughly.
Transfer to your serving dish, and tuck romaine leaves around the edge to spiffy up the presentation.
A note on the pasta
I always used regular Barilla pasta, but lately I’ve been making this with Barilla Plus, which is the pasta maker’s high-protein noodle. Each serving has 17 grams of protein, 7 grams of fiber, and 360 mg of ALA-omega-3 fatty acids.
Now, I would never make this switch strictly to eat a healthier pasta (I hate the taste of a lot of the high-protein pasta out there), but this stuff actually tastes just like regular pasta. So with the added potential health benefits it offers, why not?
