During a lull at work last week, I went on a tear hunting down recipes for Whip It Up, and a recipe for lemon basil pasta salad caught my eye. The list of ingredients and subsequent instructions were both attractively short, so I printed it out among a sheaf of other ideas. Not one to waste a good opportunity to try out yet another pasta salad, I threw together this new one last night so that we would have it for dinner before heading to the gym tonight. If there is anything I love more than eating leftovers, it is preparing dinner ahead of time. Is it any surprise that I lavish deep affection on my slow cooker?
Ah, I digress.
Put simply, this lemon basil pasta salad is ridiculously, insanely easy. It is the type of side dish that, when confronted with unexpected guests, I could make in 15 minutes after a quick (and cheap) run to the grocery store on the way home from work. There is no meat to cook in advance, no teary onion to chop, and not even a vinaigrette to mix up. Just prep, dump, mix, and serve!
That said, I think that the original recipe produced a plain, bland dish. I had hoped that the small list of ingredients would come together as a miraculous, synergetic amalgam whose combination would be greater than the sum of its parts. However, I was severely underwhelmed when I took that initial taste. Not to be discouraged, I doubled the amount of basil, tossed in about a quarter cup of grated Parmesan cheese, and added a quarter teaspoon of black pepper, and the salad was much improved, in my opinion. I felt justified in my modifications because what kind of pasta salad worth its salt has neither pepper nor cheese in it? Come on, now.
At the end of the day, I recommend using this recipe as a jumping-off point for whatever kind of pasta salad you fancy. If we had had feta cheese or pine nuts on hand, I would have tossed those in for good measure. Or maybe black olives, artichoke hearts, or chickpeas? Ooh, cucumber and fresh spinach would be nice! You could swap out the lemon juice for apple cider vinegar or raspberry vinegar, I think. Cooked chicken or shrimp or even drained tuna would bulk up the salad into a main dish.
Oh, my mind gears are turning. Clearly, my work is cut out for me.
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8 comments
I think it would be a good side dish for grilled chicken. It looks so pretty in your pictures.
How many have signed up for Whip It Up so far? I’m excited!
This is such a good point. Almost any recipe can benefit from customizing, and I forget that sometimes. Pasta salad is especially ripe for it. Along with regular lettuce salad.
I wish I were more of a customizing risk-taker. I REALLY like to follow the instructions in the recipe to the letter, am impulse that I’m sure you can appreciate, and I’m also not confident about my ability to improvise. Maybe I need to take a simple recipe like this and mess with it.
I’m even thinking I could divide this recipe in half or quarters so that if one experiment doesn’t work, we’d still have dinner!
That looks totally delicious, and like you, I keep thinking with glee of all the things I could add to it. Yum! Now I am off to scrounge up some peanut butter for dinner.
This looks super tasty. I think I may have to make this this weekend!
You are an inspiration! I made this for dinner tonight with a side of grilled chicken. I added artichoke hearts and feta and sliced black olives, as well as the double basil, ground pepper and also a smidgen of finely-minced garlic. Delicious!
Not that I think this will happen, but if there was (were?) ever an intervention I might need to stage in your life, it would be between you and pasta salad.
Am I right on this one?
Love ya!
Mmm - it looks yummy (but only with your modifications).
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