Long before I learned to cook, I had a few trusty potluck standbys. Back in those days, my friends and I went through a phase of potluck dinners parties. Foisting a previously untested recipe is risky at best but contributing the same dish every time screams boring. Pasta salad was one of my signature dishes I kept on rotation. It was reliable, predictable, and colourfully appealing. Best of all, I could make the dish ahead of time and the flavour would only improve with an overnight rest in the fridge.
My version of pasta salad has a strong Mediterranean influence. I pack the salad with roasted chicken pieces, black olives, sweet red peppers, crumbled feta cheese, and red onion. The dressing has the bright flavour of lemon zest, lemon juice, dried oregano, and olive oil. It is absolutely a beginner cook’s best friend and doesn’t require much cooking know how. If you can cook pasta, cut vegetable, tear apart a roast chicken, and whisk together a vinaigrette, you can do this.
For someone who makes and eats salad as often as I do, you may think I have plenty of pretty salad bowls and servers at home. Not so. Salad to me is meal for one. In most cases, I would make a big batch and store it in a no-nonsense container in the fridge. Comes dinner time, I simply scoop out a portion into my latte cup and dinner is ready. Bowls and servers are for show when company visits. Yet I rarely serve a big salad on such occasions.
This is why it is all the more exciting I finally splurged for a set of beechwood salad servers. Talisman Designs from Minnesota creates a collection of pretty etched wooden utensils. I already own a pair of mini spoons purchased back in August. The salad servers have their bird and foliage design etched on the material. It looks so absolutely precocious! You can buy it here. I paid $16.99 for mine. Should have done some price comparison before I shopped!
Mediterranean Pasta Salad with Chicken
makes 10 cups
Ingredients
- 225g of dried farfalle (bowtie) pasta
- 2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 store bought roast chicken, preferably plain, discard skin & bones, shred to bite size pieces
- 2 sweet red bell peppers or shepherd peppers, seeded and diced
- 1 small red onion, diced
- 1 200mL can of sliced black olives, drained
- 1 big handful of finely chopped parsley
- 100g Greek feta, drained and crumbled
- 1 lemon
- 3 tablespoons of white wine vinegar
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoon of dried oregano
- salt and pepper to taste
Method
- Make pasta according to package directions if you like. I learned to make it slightly differently. Bring 4L of water to boil in a heavy bottom pot. Add 2 teaspoons of kosher salt. Add dried pasta and return to boil. Cover the pot with a lid and turn off the heat. Let it sit undisturbed for 20-25 minutes or until pasta is done. Rinse under cold tap water to stop cooking and drain.
- In a very large mixing bowl, combine chicken, bell peppers, red onions, black olives, parsley, and feta. Gently toss in cooled pasta.
- To make the vinaigrette, finely zest and juice the lemon in a small bowl. Add in white wine vinegar, olive oil, Dijon mustard, and dried oregano. Whisk until homogenous.
- Drizzle vinaigrette over salad and toss well. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Go easy on the salt at first because chicken, feta, and black olives are all salty ingredients. Store in fridge for up to a day. Serve cold or at room temperature. The salad actually tastes better after an overnight rest anyway.
