Garden Pasta Salad

i love pasta salad because it can’t possibly even begin to be limited by a recipe, other than maybe what to use for a dressing (and even then.....)  yup, right up my alley :)

we were still in somewhat of a food coma from spending the fourth of july afternoon with will’s folks (we eat like the gods there, and we eat a lot) so finally by the time dusk was setting in and the chicks were putting themselves up for the night we were ready for something, as long as it was light, “like a salad.”  done.

i have been fighting like mad to reclaim our collard and kale crops from caterpillars (as i push out of my mind both my childhood favorite book “the very hungry caterpillar” and the fact every single one of them will “grow up to be a beautiful butterfly someday,” as long as they feast on every single tender cell of my collards, that is!)  a few weeks of diligence on my part has brought some lovely foliage from these toughies and we had yet to eat a single leaf of their gifts, so i happily plucked a few each of collards and kale and went inside to execute the next crucial step of our sustenance, so joyfully named by yours truly :)

i think any kind of small pasta is ok for this kind of thing.  i opted for the spiral-y kind and put enough water on for half of the pound box (6 cups or so?), as i was not ready to be responsible for a whole pound of cooked pasta again just yet!  the last pound lasted the two of us (in various outfits--both us and the pasta ;) for three dinners, plus my lunches for two days in between; the gift that keeps on giving.  

while the water was boiling and pasta was hitting the jacuzzi, i rounded up all of the veggies i had at my delicious disposal to make an assessment.  baby spinach, red onion, banana pepper, celery, and cilantro (it’s green; it counts), plus the collards and kale from the garden.  sure.  i’ll take ‘em.  normally i would always cook kale and chard (it breaks them down a bit, and makes them more palatable and digestible) but these leaves were rather young so i just chopped them up and started the salad engine (it runs on biodiesel for sure ;)

the rest of the veggies got chopped up and tossed in the bowl.  use your creativity and inspiration (or just best judgement :) on how big or small to cut things.  not to play favorites, but some veggies are just prettier than others, and sometimes i make those ones a little more, uh, visible.  raw onions and garlic, and cilantro if you feel that way about it, ought to be minced pretty finely so certain mouthfuls don’t get dominated by it.

in went the noodles, and then came decisions for dressing.  the only organic mayo i had been able to find at the neighborhood grocery store was roasted garlic, which i figured couldn’t hurt anything (least of all the evening’s pasta salad!) so i dropped in a large spoonful, along with a bit of juice leftover from our last olive indulgence, and a few good drizzles of bragg’s and olive oil, as well as a dusting of cracked salt, and mixed it all together.  mayo will hide in clumps in you aren’t careful, especially in the hide-and-seek folds of durum wheat spirals, so mix well.

garden pasta salad

approximate price: $5