EIGHT FLAVOURED PASTA SALAD

P8...Eight Flavours Pesto Pasta Salad

Now it is the pasta itself that has eight flavours…and if Adriano can call his amazing one flavoured Vanilla Thriller a V8, then I figure I can call this the P8 as I’m guessing the salad has a whole lot more flavours than eight, (given the pasta has its own thing going on). This salad can be made with any pasta, but I could not resist the pretty packet of Orecchiette (little shells) which cost an inordinate amount of money…but it was imported from Italy and it had all natural flavours; tomato, red beetroot, carrot, spinach, basil, turmeric and squid ink….um, guessing the eighth flavour is…pasta?

NEED:

500g small pasta of choice

1 batch pesto (reserve a few basil leaves for garnish)

juice 1 lemon

handful black olives

1 punnet grape tomatoes halved lengthways

1/2 red onion, diced

2 small Lebanese cucumbers sliced diagonally

1 small red capsicum deseeded and diced

DO:

Cook pasta as package directs. (This was a slow cooking pasta due to the ‘realness’ of the product…18 minutes!)

Drain and set aside.

Prepare pesto. Toss through pasta with all ingredients. Garnish with a few basil leaves.

Voila…a few great additions to this to make it a meal instead of a side would be flaked tuna, diced cooked chicken, roasted eggplant or pumpkin, or try adding different herbs and nuts in the pesto for a totally different take. Pasta salad is like Potato Salad; whatever you do, throw flavour at it along with a great dressing and you can’t really go wrong. Erm…unless you’re on a low carb diet!