Homemade Pasta Salad Recipe

Ingredients:

6 oz rainbow spiral pasta

3 oz prosciutto, cut into thin strips 3 inches long

15 grape tomatoes, halved

1 shallot, thinly sliced

2 oz goat cheese, rolled into 10 equal balls

1 tbsp freshly cracked black pepper

Zest and juice 1 citrus (I prefer an orange)

1/2 c oil

1/4 c vinegar

***for the herb pesto

1 bunch parsley, roughly chopped

3 stems worth mint leaves, roughly chopped

3 cloves garlic

3 serrano peppers, sliced thin keeping the seeds

1/4 c oil

1 tbsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

2.5 oz asiago cheese

Tools needed:

Food processor ***affiliate link

Mixing bowl

Wire whisk

Cutting board

Sharp knife ***affiliate link

Measuring cups and spoons

Large stock pot

Strainer

Rubber spatula

How to make it:

***To make an easy and delicious vinaigrette:

Place shallots and tomatoes in a mixing bowl. Add pinch salt, oil, orange zest/juice and vinegar. Mix gently with wire whisk. Let marinade for 15-20 minutes while the pasta cooks and you make the pesto. This is a loose vinaigrette and allowing the ingredients to marinade will pull out a ton of flavor from the shallots and tomatoes, also adding more body to the vinaigrette.

Cook pasta 8-10 minutes, needs to be cooked slightly past al dente. Strain, rinse pasta under cold running water. Add to the bowl with the tomatoes and shallots, gently toss.

***To make the pesto:

Place mint, parsley, asiago cheese, serrano peppers, oil, salt and pepper into a food processor. If you don’t have one, a mortar and pestle works great too. Using a microplane, grate garlic into the processor. Pulse 3 times, stir ingredients and scrape the sides. Run processor on medium speed, drizzle in oil. Run processor for 10-15 seconds maximum, just until everything gets processed evenly and is of pesto consistency. If your process the herbs too long, they will start to lose their nice green color.

Add pesto and proscuitto the the mixing bowl, toss gently to evenly coat pasta with the pesto. Place the goat cheese balls on a plate, roll around in freshly cracked black pepper. Add the cheese once the pasta salad gets served in a bowl or platter as a garnish.

Goes great with burgers, crispy chicken sandwich or all by itself!

Enjoy

Logan