I love pasta salads.
Every summer I promise myself that I will make lots of pasta salads.
Every summer I fail to keep my promise.
I’m either making too many Plum Clafoutis or indulging in my favorite Double Chocolate Chunk Zucchini Bread and don’t want the extra calories or it’s too hot and I don’t want to be in the kitchen or (insert excuse here).
Regarding the calorie comment: I’m not on a diet, but I do pay attention to what I eat so I don’t have to be on a diet. Part of paying attention is choosing my indulgences.
That doesn’t mean I haven’t enjoyed a few pasta salads…. It just means I haven’t over-indulged.
Click here to Pin Pantry Pasta Salad
PrintPantry Pasta Salad
I consider this a pantry salad as white beans and marinated artichoke hearts are one of my pantry staples. The tomatoes and basil are from my garden.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
- Category: Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup (4oz, 120gr) bite-size pasta, rotini, fusilli, penne
- 1 cup (8oz, 250gr) white beans, rinsed, drained
- 1 large or 2 smaller tomatoes, cut into bite-size pieces
- 3 tbs fresh basil. large leaves torn
- 3oz (90gr) marinated artichoke hearts, slice in half the long way if large
- 1/3 cup green olives, sliced
- Vinaigrette:
- 1 tbs Dijon-style mustard
- 3 tbs white wine tarragon vinegar
- 3 tbs good olive oil
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain.
- Put mustard, vinegar and oil in a large salad bowl. Whisk well.
- Add pasta, white beans and stir well
- Add tomatoes, artichoke hearts, olives, basil and stir gently. Serve.
Notes
Don’t rinse pasta. For more flavor, add it to the vinaigrette as soon as it’s drained to allow it to absorb some of the dressing.
This can be served immediately, or made a head and refrigerated for several hours.
Keywords: pasta salad, pasta sides
It’s hot again.
Not as hot as it was…. only 95F (35C) rather than 100F (38C) or 104F (40C).
Those few degrees really do make a difference.
I have noticed that none of us, not 2-legged nor 4-legged, seem to be bothered as much by the warm temps. this time.
I would like to think it’s because we’ve become acclimated so that when next summer is equally hot or hotter we’ll be better equipped to handle it.
I’d like to think that…..
But I’m pretty sure the reason is the shorter days.
Back during the first session of high temperatures (this is the 3rd, or is it the 4th?) the days were longer. The sun wasn’t setting until after 10 pm and it was already blazing heat at 6:30 am.
Our house never had a chance to cool down.
Now it’s dark at 9 pm and, even though the sun is up by 7 am, it’s been cloudy and foggy in the mornings.
Our afternoon highs are lasting minutes rather than hours.
Still…. Climate change has me paying more attention to our world and my dogs paying more attention to the fans on the floor.
I think our three days of summer ended last week. 😉 It’s 70 here now, at 6pm, but the humidity is under 50% which always makes for a cooler feel. Plus, we’re up on a hill where the wind (breeze?) is relentless so that also helps to cool us. But we did have our share of hot days.
I find the older I get, the more I simply have to look at food and I gain weight. *sigh* And I love pasta. I really do. And potatoes. And rice. And all those things I only have to smell to gain 5 pounds…
I few years ago I stopped putting milk in my coffee & tea. Amazingly that amounted to almost 2 quarts a week. That allowed me to start eating potatoes / pasta / rice on most days. I had stopped when I lost weight a few years earlier.
It took me awhile to adjust to black coffee but it was worth it lol