Fit Fare

Note: This article is adapted from a post on the author’s blog.

Every time winter finally passes and the weather starts to change, I get the urge to make Marinated Pasta with Vegetables. I found the recipe years ago in a vegetarian cookbook and I was intrigued because it didn’t have mayonnaise or cubed American cheese in it, two things that seem to be a staple of the kinds of pasta salads I grew up eating.

The first time I bought whole wheat pasta was back around 1980. I had already switched to whole wheat bread years before, and brown rice, and was always looking for ways to improve the quality of what I was eating, so I bought some bulk whole wheat spaghetti at the then only (and original) Whole Foods in Austin, Texas. I took it home, made my traditional meat sauce, cooked up the spaghetti, and wanted to throw the whole thing away. It was dense, chewy, gummy, and tasted awful. It was years before I would try it again.

When I started seriously avoiding processed foods and was looking for palatable ways to eat whole wheat exclusively, I thought it might be good to try the whole wheat pasta again with this recipe. As it turns out, I was right. It was a rousing success. The pasta was nutty and chewy and worked well with the marinade and the vegetables. And since that first experiment, I’ve never looked back. I’ve been making it with whole wheat pasta for several years now.

And what I learned from this was to look for new ways to eat pasta. My old, traditional pasta recipes do not translate well to the whole wheat variety. Long simmering sauces and casseroles like lasagna do not lend themselves to whole wheat. Smaller pieces work better than spaghetti, linguini, or fettucini. But a light sauce that has a lot of vegetables is actually better with whole wheat pasta, at least to my tastes now. And if I don’t actually prefer whole wheat to regular pasta, at least I like them both the same.

It’s the marinade that makes this salad. It’s subtle, but substantial enough to hold up to the pasta and vegetables. I always use broccoli and some form of tomatoes, but I improvise everything else, depending on what I have on hand.

Because this is best eaten at room temperature, it makes a wonderfully refreshing lunch in the summertime.

By now this is more of a template than a recipe for me. The version in the photo above has no mushrooms or peas, and I was out of red onion so I used a spice mixture with dried shallots for the marinade, and green onions in the salad. I used a chopped tomato and a handful of smoked sun-dried tomatoes instead of the cherry tomatoes. Instead of the peas, which I also did not have on hand, I added 1/4 cup of toasted pine nuts.

Marinated Pasta and Vegetable Salad

1 lb whole wheat rotini
3 cups sliced mushrooms
1 Tbsp olive oil
3 cups broccoli florets
1 cup fresh or frozen peas
15 cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup finely diced red onion

Dressing:

1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
4 cloves minced garlic
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp oregano
14/ tsp red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste

Cook pasta according to package directions, drain and rinse under cold water. Drain thoroughly, then put in large serving bowl. Saute mushrooms in oil until tender and brown; add to pasta and toss. Steam broccoli until tender; immerse in cold water, drain. Pat dry and add to pasta. Defrost peas (or steam if fresh), pat dry and add to pasta. Add cherry tomatoes, parsley and onion and mix well.

Combine all ingredients for dressing into a jar with a tight-fitting lid
and shake vigorously. Pour over pasta and toss well. Cover and chill at least 2 hours before serving, bringing to room temperature.

Adapted from Vegeterian Pleasures, by Jeanne Lemlin (Knopf, 1986)