Pasta salad

cottagerose, Mar 14, 4:28am
Does anyone have a nice pasta salad recipe they would like to share as I would like to make one for my daughters wedding.
One using sumari meat and one without, I thought.
245sam, Mar 14, 4:39am
cottagerose, I'm not meaning to be critical, but just to be sure that we know exactly what you're wanting, by "sumari meat" do you mean surimi i.e. the fish product!:-))
jaydan1, Mar 14, 5:52am
Don't know if this is wedding Material stuff.but what I do is.

Boil and drain pene Pasta, run cold water over it till it's cold. Then add a tub of sun dried tomato pesto, chopped up spring onion, grilled streaky bacon ( cooled and chopped into pieces) and cheese cut up into small cubes/pieces. Season and mix together. It is actually very nice.
cottagerose, Mar 14, 6:58am
Oops, yes I spelt it wrong:)
mackenzie2, Mar 14, 6:39pm
Might I make a suggestion. I would not put surimi in with the pasta salad. I do this one for weddings and it is a winner. Boil pasta, I find spirals the easiest to use, when cool, add finely sliced silverbeet, small tomato's cut in half, cubed feta and a container of basil pesto, looks wonderful and tastes YUM. I do it by the bucket full, I toss the dressing through last minute.I would buy shrimps for a potato salad instead if you want to use seafood,cook cubed potato's, when cool add chopped red onion and red peppers, lots and lots of cracked pepper, Then makethe sauce with either a homemade seafood sauce dressing or buy one (if you do buy ready made, add equal amounts of sour cream, it makes it so much creamier)add the surimi and shrimps, and dressing and mix, just before serving toss chopped parsley through.
cottagerose, Mar 15, 4:07am
Thankyou mackenzie. Your recipes looks likereal winners and as Im doing the salads on my own they will be quick and simple to make.
melford, Mar 15, 8:57am
Which brand of pesto do you use and is that the complete dressing or do you add something else!
sarahb5, Mar 15, 9:23am
If I'm adding a dressing to pasta salad I always add the cold dressing to the still warm pasta - it seems to actually soak through and flavour the pasta much better.I don't really have a pasta salad recipe - it's just whatever I have to hand - usually spirals or penne (I like Barilla's integale), and then any or all of the following roasted capsicum, cherry tomatoes, chorizo, olives, feta, red onion fried in the same pan as the chorizo, diced egg plant or zucchini, pine nuts, balsamic vinegar, baby spinach, capers, fresh herbs .
mackenzie2, Mar 15, 10:36pm
Hi Melford, I use the Pesto Basil & Cashew Chunky
Brand:
PASTA DORO, I use olive oil to toss the pasta in after it is cooked to stop it sticking. I buy it through Bidvest food, for $23.94for 1 ltr, I have used basil hummus that was nice but the pesto above is lovely.
mackenzie2, Mar 15, 10:39pm
My pleasure, yes they are certainly simple to make, I generally make a full 12 kg bucket of these. If you would like quantities for bulk, please ask. I am happy to help
melford, Mar 15, 10:51pm
sorry I am still unclear - do you only use Pesto Basil Chunky and nothing else or is "pasta doro" a brand name of a dressing or the name of the dish!
mackenzie2, Mar 15, 11:56pm
Sorry I didn't explain that very well, I usually use Pasta Doro's,Basil & Cashew Chunky Pesto,so yes it it the brand and type of pesto that I prefer, they also do a few others, Tomato etc. But I like the flavour of this one.
sarahb5, Mar 16, 12:21am
I've just bought Jamie Oliver's pesto and it's really nice as a dressing on pasta salad - my kids found the basil & cashew a bit over-powering and aren't that fond of nuts either.In fact, if I was doing pasta salad for a function I wouldn't add any nuts of any description just in case of allergies.
melford, Mar 16, 12:54am
aaaaaaah thank you so much
nfh1, Mar 16, 1:23am
It is lovely, I got some the other week.
mackenzie2, Mar 16, 1:42am
sarahb5 wrote:

I've just bought Jamie Oliver's pesto and it's really nice as a dressing on pasta salad

Oh will have to keep an eye out for it, thank you
cottagerose, Mar 18, 7:12am
I cant use nuts in my pasta either so would love your recipe if you have time to post and which supermarket had jamie olivers pesto. Thankyou
sarahb5, Mar 18, 8:08am
I don't have a recipe as such, just throw in whatever I have in the fridge/pantry like I said above, and the pesto was from Countdown