a summer favorite: pasta salad!

Pasta salad season is upon us! 
It's one of the most simple, delicious dishes to bring to a cook out or to pack for a day at the beach, and the pasta-bilites are endless! See what I did there? Sorry, had to.

I found my go-to pasta salad recipe at my sister's house, and have tweaked it to make it my own over time. The best part about it is that you can use favorite veggies that you have on hand, and measurements are open to interpretation. There's only one rule: the more color, the better! 

INGREDIENTS

yellow bell pepper

red onion

black olives, pitted

green beans 

cherry tomatoes 

mozzarella pearls 

pepperoni

italian salad dressing

METHOD

ONE.

Cook pasta. Drain and let stand for 5 minutes. 

TWO.

Toss in 1/4 cup italian dressing, allowing pasta to cool to room temperature.

THREE.

Chop bell pepper, onion and green beans into similar-sized pieces. Slice black olives, halve/quarter cherry tomatoes and cube pepperoni into similar sizes pieces as the other veggies. Toss all in with pasta. Add mozzarella pearls to pasta. Mix well! Add more dressing to taste.

So simple, right?! I intentionally left out amounts of each ingredient - the great thing about this pasta salad is that you can choose to go heavy on some ingredients, or do an equal amount of all for a well balanced mix. 

Don't want to play the guessing game? I usually use about 6 handfuls of dry pasta, 3/4 bell pepper, 1/4 onion, 1 handful green beans, 1 small can black olives, 1/2 pint tomatoes, 1/2 container mozzarella pearls, and 1 handful cubed pepperoni.

I've also picked up a few tricks... 

Making it the night before really allows the pasta to take on the flavor of the dressing, but...

To keep the tomatoes from getting mushy, don't add them until a couple hours before you're ready to serve.

With the dressing, less is more. You can always add more, or serve the salad with aside of dressing so people can add their own.

It's all about the noodle shape. 
I'm serious. Pick something that will hold all of the dressing's flavor goodness in its nooks and crannies.

And because you can never have too much of a good thing, here are a few more pasta salad recipes I found that I'm dying to try. 

Zucchini and Oriechetta Pasta Salad with Beans Such a yummy combination of ingredients, and the lemon seems like it would really brighten up all of the flavors.

Cilantro-Lime Pasta Salad Avocado in a pasta salad? Yes please.

Tuna Pasta Salad with Dill & Peas I'm not typically a fan of mayo, but I want to give this a try. I might cut down on the mayo and add some fancy mustard.

Pasta Salad with Feta, Tomato, Kalamata Olives and Sweet Basil Vinaigrette Not only does the vinaigrette sound to-die-for, but I love that there's fresh basil in the mix.


Got any awesome pasta salad recipes or secrets?

xo Emily

vermont restaurant week 2014.

VT Restaurant Week. Ten glorious days of amazing menus and great offers from restaurants all over the state. With so many spots to hit year around, Restaurant Week adds extra appeal because it features special menus featuring each restaurants' best dishes. 

 Last year, I was a slacker. I realized towards the end of the week that it was about to end and hadn't made it to any of the awesome places that were participating. A friend and I made a last-minute reservation at L'Ammonte Ristorante and it was... fantastic.

This year I knew I had to have a plan. I started scoping out the list early, and as restaurants were added, I made my list of "musts" and "wants". 

Here's what I settled on. Reservations made. Excited!

UPDATE
Now that VT Restaurant Week has come to a close, here's a recap of where I went and what I had. And no, I didn't order all of this... I made friends and family tolerate my at-the-table picture-taking.

Highlights:
I had the best tiramisu of my life.
I will forever want brussel sprouts on my pizza.
I ate a baby squid-shaped calamaro.

Cafe Provence Waterbury 
menu

Escargot Provençal With tomato, garlic, Pernod, wilted baby spinach and a petite salad

Curried Calamari on Forbidden Rice

Caesar Salad in a Crispy Cheese Cup With shrimp

Chicken Cordon Bleu With garlic mashed potatoes and lemon-butter sauce

Baked Haddock Provençal Over creamy polenta with basil-pesto cream sauce

Steak Au Poivre NY Strip with tobacco onions, garlic mashed potatoes and black peppercorn sauce*

*not a VT Restaurant Week choice... Dad was a rebel.

Stuffed Crêpe With orange-strawberry cream and chocolate sauce
Flourless Chocolate Cake With raspberry coulis

Barkeaters Shelburne
menu

Roasted-Beet Salad Greens, roasted beets, Vermont Creamery chèvre and Vermont maple walnuts

Black-Bean-and-Quinoa Cakes Black beans, quinoa, carrots, onion, garlic, cilantro and cumin with avocado-lime sauce

Ravioli du Jour Restaurant week special addition, lobster ravioli in a champagne cream sauce topped with a crab cake

Steak Frites Grilled flank steak, fries and wasabi-horseradish sauce

Cookie Sundae

Pizzeria Verita Burlington
menu

Insalata Mista Local mixed greens with red-wine vinaigrette and goat cheese

Insalata Colorata Roasted seasonal beets, avocado and microgreens in citrus vinaigrette

Salsiccia e Funghi Tomatoes, housemade fennel sausage or hot Italian sausage, fior di latte, mushrooms, Grana Padano, fresh basil, EVOO

Brussel Sprouts Fior di latte, brussels sprouts, speck, pecorino Romano, garlic, EVOO

Tiramisu Layers of espresso-and-rum-dipped biscotti and mascarpone custard

Sorbetto Bindi Orange

Pulcinella's So. Burlington

menu

Insalata Verdure Organic mesclun greens, carrots, cucumbers, onions and tomatoes with red wine vinaigrette

Zuppa Del Giorno A bowl of any one of our daily soup inspirations

Arrosto Petto di Pollo al Mattone Brick-grilled chicken breast, creamy polenta, broccoli rabe and a balsamic-reduction sauce

Did you have VT Restaurant Week plans? Have you been to any of the places on my list? Let me know in the comments below!

xo Emily