Fit Fare

By Ralph Villers

This is an appropriate dish for hot weather days. The obvious beauty, of course, is that is something served chilled. In addition, even better, it is simple to prepare and can be made many ways.

Today our choice is a pasta salad. This salad was prepared and served in short order. The ease of preparation was nice, but the style of dressing led to slightly longer periods of debate. The choices for any of the salads are a mayonnaise based dressing versus an oil based one. I had opted for the latter, but discussed it with our daughter. Her opinion, as she does not like mayonnaise, was for the oil based dressing, I acceded to her idea, and the recipe was prepared in only 20 minutes, including the pasta. Note that we used only food on hand in the pantry or freezer; we did not purchase any food especially for this.

To serve with this dish, we chose a Vihno Verde Branco from Portugal. This is a white wine, light in alcohol (9%), with a slight effervescence. This is a perfect hot weather wine. This wine would pair well with seafood dishes.

Pasta Salad
serves 8
1 lb rotini
2 tbsp dijon mustard
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp rice vinegar
4 fresh basil leaves, chopped
2 stems fresh oregano, chopped
2 tsp garlic powder
1 cup frozen peas, defrosted
1 cup frozen yellow corn, defrosted
1 cup carrots, diced
1 jar roasted pepper, diced
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper

Cook the rotini according to package directions. Drain and rinse pasta with cold water.

For the dressing, mix mustard, vinegar, oil, basil, oregano, garlic powder in large mixing bowl.

Add pasta to the dressing and mix thoroughly.

Add the vegetables to the bowl.

Add the grated cheese, and mix the salad thoroughly.

Chill the salad before serving.

Serve this salad with a Portuguese or any crusty bread. Since we used an entire box of pasta, this amount will serve eight.