Beat the Heat with Tuscan Pasta Salad for Dinner
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My idea of meal prepping is making a giant vat of pasta salad and eating nothing else for a week straight. It’s the kind of dish that only gets better with time and requires nothing more than popping a perfect portion out of the fridge. Ah, the simple joys of cooking for one.
Since I’ve already declared that I’m (loosely) boycotting my oven until September, this Tuscan pasta salad from The Recipe Critic will have to tide me over in the meantime. Luckily it couldn’t be easier to make.
First, boil a pound of bowtie pasta (my fave!) and drain the noodles in cold water. You could also try this nifty trick I just learned from Food Network’s Katie Lee, for a quick way to cool down your pasta before adding in the rest of the salad ingredients. The choice is yours.
Then combine the pasta, a jar of sun-dried tomatoes in oil (drained), diced red bell pepper, canned and sliced olives, chopped basil, spinach leaves, and Parmesan cheese. For me, the hardest part of this recipe will be making sure that I have a bowl large enough to fit this amount of pasta salad which I will be eating all week.
The vinaigrette could not be easier to make (olive oil, vinegar, water, salt, sugar, oregano, basil, garlic, salt, and pepper), but feel free to use any bottled Italian dressing you have. Bonus points if it’s from Tuscany.
→ Get the Recipe: Tuscan Pasta Salad from The Recipe Critic
