Easy and reliable side dish for summer cookouts and picnics, and a great way to showcase in-season fresh vegetables
Pasta Salad

adapted from Not Another Cooking Show

3 quarts

deli side dish

Ingredients

Vegetables

Adjust vegetables and ratios to preference

  • 2-3 carrots
  • 2-4 celery stalks
  • 2-4 bell peppers1
  • 2-4 green onions
  • 1/2 red onion

Radish and chive are also good

The Rest

  • 1 lb rotini2
  • 1 cup mayo
  • 1/2 cup sour cream or yogurt
  • 1/4 cup white vinegar
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1.5 tbsp garlic powder
  • 1 lemon
  • good olive oil
  • salt

Make It

Do these steps the day before, at least.

  1. Pasta => Add couple tbsp salt and vinegar to pot of water and set to boil. Set timer to 2 minutes short of al dente, or the smallest number in the cook time range on the box. Set up strainer in sink and get a large bowl out. Taste pasta when timer goes off. Cook until almost al dente, where there’s a chew but the pasta isn’t hard. Strain (do not rinse) and then move pasta to the bowl. Swirl the pasta around to help it cool. Let cool completely at room temp, or in the fridge to speed things up. The pasta should taste salty, as there’s no salt in the dressing
  2. Vegetables => Prep vegetables while pasta is cooking. The pieces should be small, bite-sized dice. Move red onions to a small bowl with a few splashes of vinegar, and mix. This lowers their intensity from a 10 to a 3.
  3. Dressing => whisk together mayo, sour cream, vinegar, garlic powder, and sugar until smooth
  4. Combine => when pasta is completely cooled, mix with dressing and vegetables. Cover and move to fridge

Finishing - Next Day

Uncover and stir. Add spoonful or two of mayo at a time, and stir, until it looks and sounds creamy. Squeeze half lemon’s worth of juice and stir; the acid will spike the flavor. Taste and decide if it needs the other half lemon. Drizzle spoonful or two of good olive oil and stir; the oil makes it look shiny and smoothes the texture a bit. Add salt if needed. Move to 3 quart-sized deli containers if you have them. This will keep for a week, but days 1-3 will be the best

Notes

  1. Bell Peppers => if not in-season, sub with mini sweet peppers, which tend to taste great year-round and keep for a couple weeks
  2. Pasta Type => I really like rotini, but there’s other good choices like large elbow macaroni, fusili, gemelli, etc. Find what you like best