Pasta Salad Questions

[giggler]

My personell pref for this dish is salad cold, very light dressing, and 90% veggeies, 10% meat and eggs, and 10% pasta..

1. Maybe I'm using too much pasta. I use the little cork screws, but every time they just overwelm the dish.. I'm to the point I'll just break up some spaghetti.

2. The dressing. I've tried creamy, too heavy.
I've tried vinegrette or even bottled Itanian Wishbone dressing.. ok..

I think the best salad I made last year was leftover Russian Dressing Wishbone from Ruben night, not creamy and kinda sour..

3. I would like this as a salad I could make Sunday then Fridge and eat Monday night when I get home so it needs to be close to a Chef Salad with meat, eggs, maybe cheese for supper. I think last year I used canned shrimp or that weird Krab which I like..

any Thoughts?

Thanks, Eric Austin Tx.

 

[CraigC]

I've used the Caprese relish from this recipe for pasta salad. I usually use pearl mozzarella. You can use what ever pasta you wish and can add salami, capicola, etc.

Spiedini Hoagies with Caprese Relish Recipe : Bobby Flay : Food Network

 

[medtran49]

I got this recipe from a girlfriend. Use Mueller's Pasta | Recipes | Classic Macaroni Salad as your base recipe and add a couple (or more to your taste) hard-boiled eggs and some shrimp. She used the canned (2 cans) shrimp (the largest size you can get), drained well, but we usually buy decent-sized fresh ones, steam and chop up. It always gets raves, even using the canned shrimp. Alternatively, you could buy the little frozen already cooked shrimp, defrost and add.

 

[Aunt Bea]

If you want to downplay the pasta try using soup pasta, small shells, tubetti or maybe change it up with some tortellini stuffed with spinach or cheese.

In my kitchen I would skip the pasta and make an antipasto mixture similar to the ones you see in the deli case at your local grocery store and put a scoop of that mixture on a simple green or bag salad.

The mixture could contain various kinds of olives, pickled peppers, pickled artichokes, marinated mushrooms, deli meat, grape tomatoes, bell pepper, onion, etc... in a basic Italian dressing. I would add the cheese at serving time because IMO it does not improve when it is allowed to marinate with the other items.

Who am I kidding, I would just buy a pound at the deli, it would be cheaper for me and much less effort!

Good luck!

 

[Aunt Bea]

I got this recipe from a girlfriend. Use Mueller's Pasta | Recipes | Classic Macaroni Salad as your base recipe and add a couple (or more to your taste) hard-boiled eggs and some shrimp. She used the canned (2 cans) shrimp (the largest size you can get), drained well, but we usually buy decent-sized fresh ones, steam and chop up. It always gets raves, even using the canned shrimp. Alternatively, you could buy the little frozen already cooked shrimp, defrost and add.

My mother used to make this shrimp salad with good sized shell on frozen shrimp. Mom taught me to use the smallest seashell macaroni, so the shrimp would look larger. She also cut the shrimp down the middle, like a bagel, so it looked like she used twice as much shrimp!

 

[jabbur]

I find the corkscrew pasta difficult to eat in a pasta salad. I would use angle hair spaghetti broken up or tiny shells. If you want the pasta to take a backseat to the veggies you might even try some orzo which is rice sized and would add the starch without overwhelming the veggies.

 

[GotGarlic]

Try orrechiette (little ears) pasta. They're smaller than corkscrews and the little cup holds herbs and dressing well. I like an antipasto pasta salad. Use antipasto ingredients like salami, pepperoni, roasted red peppers, chopped artichoke hearts, shredded mozzarella or Parmesan cheese, or bocconcini balls, olives and basil. I've been getting the Olive Garden salad dressing from the grocery store lately. It's a little bit creamy but nice and tart. Goes great on a green or pasta salad. Hope this helps.

Orrechiette:

 

[outRIAAge]

The lady with the orrechiette recipe has it right. Commercial Fusilli (the spiral-shaped ones) are almost always too thick and stodgy in the middle.

"Pasta salad" has become a hellhole of floury, gummy dreadfulness. No need for that at all: cook the orrechiette until just dented, then TOAST them to light gold, and toss them with fresh local corn and whatever you like. Follow GotGarlic's recipe, add a poached egg, and you have a good meal.

 

[CraigC]

The lady with the orrechiette recipe has it right. Commercial Fusilli (the spiral-shaped ones) are almost always too thick and stodgy in the middle.

"Pasta salad" has become a hellhole of floury, gummy dreadfulness. No need for that at all: cook the orrechiette until just dented, then TOAST them to light gold, and toss them with fresh local corn and whatever you like. Follow GotGarlic's recipe, add a poached egg, and you have a good meal.

What is "dented"? do you mean "Al Dente"? You seem to bounce all over the place with your posts. Do you have a point to make?

 

[outRIAAge]

You understood what I meant by "dented", so why ask? As for bouncing around, guilty as charged: I'm a cooking fool, and like to learn and share.

Do I have a point to make? In this particular case I think I made it: Toast the cooked pasta before assembling the salad, to add extra flavour and ensure it doesn't end up gummy, is all.

Who died and made you king?

 

[Addie]

You understood what I meant by "dented", so why ask? As for bouncing around, guilty as charged: I'm a cooking fool, and like to learn and share.

Do I have a point to make? In this particular case I think I made it: Toast the cooked pasta before assembling the salad, to add extra flavour and ensure it doesn't end up gummy, is all.

Who died and made you king?

Please calm down. All the members here make a concerted effort to keep this forum a pleasant place to come to. If you do have a problem with a contributor, you can go to the Private Message place. And if that doesn't work, then you can send a private message to a Forum Moderator. Thank you.

 

[outRIAAge]

Thank you for the slap on the fingers and the private message advice. I was not aware of that option, or I would have taken it. The message I received was rather unpleasant, and I was responding to it. It would have been much better handled in a private conversation, on both sides.

I only got here a few days ago, a refugee from the disaster that was Chowhound, and I have lots to ask and lots to offer. I will sincerely try to never be that snippy in public again.

 

[Addie]

I got this recipe from a girlfriend. Use Mueller's Pasta | Recipes | Classic Macaroni Salad as your base recipe and add a couple (or more to your taste) hard-boiled eggs and some shrimp. She used the canned (2 cans) shrimp (the largest size you can get), drained well, but we usually buy decent-sized fresh ones, steam and chop up. It always gets raves, even using the canned shrimp. Alternatively, you could buy the little frozen already cooked shrimp, defrost and add.

This is the salad I have been using for years minus the mustard. Only we are able to buy in these parts large elbows. This is elbow macaroni salad, so I don't understand the slight aversion to using it in Macaroni Salad. I do cut my onion and celery along with any other fresh veggie rather small. After all I want to pasta product to shine, not be second class to the other additions. I also will add pepperoni, or some other deli meat cut up small.

As far as the shrimp go, if I want shrimp salad I make it as a sandwich spread. In that case it is the shrimp that is the main ingredient. Potato is the main ingredient in potato salad.

 

[Souschef]

Potato is the main ingredient in potato salad.

Thank you for that information Addie!

 

[GotGarlic]

Thank you for the slap on the fingers and the private message advice. I was not aware of that option, or I would have taken it. The message I received was rather unpleasant, and I was responding to it. It would have been much better handled in a private conversation, on both sides.

I only got here a few days ago, a refugee from the disaster that was Chowhound, and I have lots to ask and lots to offer. I will sincerely try to never be that snippy in public again.

Pay no attention to Addie She likes to pretend that she's a moderator, but she's not.

 

[Kayelle]

Pay no attention to Addie She likes to pretend that she's a moderator, but she's not.

And can we hear Amen?? Addie a moderator? That's beyond absurd!
Anyone who has been here for any amount of time knows that.

 

[outRIAAge]

Oh gosh: there is obviously a community here that I'm not yet aware of. Me I'm just a cooking fool who likes to keep to the topic of food.Thank you all for your input.

 

[CraigC]

You understood what I meant by "dented", so why ask? As for bouncing around, guilty as charged: I'm a cooking fool, and like to learn and share.

Do I have a point to make? In this particular case I think I made it: Toast the cooked pasta before assembling the salad, to add extra flavour and ensure it doesn't end up gummy, is all.

Who died and made you king?

No, I had an idea of what you meant. We get quite a few people new to cooking here that wouldn't have a clue as to what you meant.

 

[outRIAAge]

[Please accept my apology for being sharp. I have since learned that I could have responded privately, which would have been more appropriate.]

I have since tried making the salad, toasting the pasta. I didn't have orecchiette, so I used trottole. It was really good, though orecchiette is a better shape to toast. Fresh-made pasta would normally be a soggy disaster in a salad, but I wondered what toasting would do to it. I had a roasted red pepper dough, so I saved the scraps from making wide noodles and randomly cut them up to make maltagliati (literally "random-shaped end-cuts" - doesn't "maltagliati" sound far more impressive?). When toasted, they show real promise, actually tasting and smelling of red pepper. I don't yet know how long they'll hold up in the salad.

 

[Kayelle]

[Please accept my apology for being sharp. I have since learned that I could have responded privately, which would have been more appropriate.]

I have since tried making the salad, toasting the pasta. I didn't have orecchiette, so I used trottole. It was really good, though orecchiette is a better shape to toast. Fresh-made pasta would normally be a soggy disaster in a salad, but I wondered what toasting would do to it. I had a roasted red pepper dough, so I saved the scraps from making wide noodles and randomly cut them up to make maltagliati (literally "random-shaped end-cuts" - doesn't "maltagliati" sound far more impressive?). When toasted, they show real promise, actually tasting and smelling of red pepper. I don't yet know how long they'll hold up in the salad.

OK, I'll bite. What exactly do you do to "toast" the pasta? Details please.