Description
Jamie Oliver’s pasta salad offers a delightful Mediterranean-inspired blend of fresh ingredients and bold flavors. Crisp vegetables, herbs, and tangy dressing create a perfect summer dish you’ll crave at picnics and potlucks.
Ingredients
Scale
- 310 g (10.9 oz) small shell-shaped pasta
- 255 g (9 oz) yellow cherry tomatoes
- 255 g (9 oz) red cherry tomatoes
- 1 handful black olives, pitted
- 0.5 cucumber
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsps fresh chives
- 1 handful fresh basil
- 4 tbsps white wine vinegar, or to taste
- 7 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Pasta Preparation: Boil salted water and cook pasta with whole garlic cloves until perfectly al dente. Drain and rinse under cold water to stop cooking, then transfer cooled pasta to a large mixing bowl.
- Vegetable Chopping: Dice cucumber, chives, basil leaves, olives, and tomatoes into precise, bite-sized pieces that complement the pasta’s shape, ensuring uniform texture and visual appeal.
- Dressing Creation: Crush roasted garlic cloves into a silky paste using a mortar and pestle. Whisk in vinegar, olive oil, and selected seasonings, blending until the mixture achieves a smooth, cohesive consistency.
- Final Assembly: Drizzle the aromatic dressing over the pasta and vegetable medley, gently folding to ensure every ingredient is lavishly coated. Taste and fine-tune seasoning with additional herbs, salt, and pepper to elevate the flavor profile.
Notes
- Maximize Garlic Flavor: Roasting whole garlic cloves during pasta boiling infuses deep, mellow flavor into the base of the dish.
- Precision in Chopping: Cut vegetables to consistent, bite-sized pieces matching pasta dimensions for optimal texture and balanced eating experience.
- Dressing Technique: Use mortar and pestle to crush garlic into smooth paste, ensuring intense, evenly distributed flavor throughout the salad.
- Temperature Control: Immediately rinse pasta with cold water to stop cooking process and prevent overdone, mushy texture, maintaining perfect al dente consistency.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Lunch, Snacks
- Method: Boiling
- Cuisine: British
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4
- Calories: 400
- Sugar: 6 g
- Sodium: 300 mg
- Fat: 30 g
- Saturated Fat: 4 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 24 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 35 g
- Fiber: 3 g
- Protein: 8 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg