Welcome back! And thank you for letting me take last week off. I am not joking when I say that I felt like a walking zombie. But, I’m back. I told my husband this past Sunday that I was going to continue to keep dinners this week chill, which is just one way of saying that I was planning to make Ali Slagle meals exclusively. His response was something along the lines of, “Yeah, you say that but Wednesday will roll around and Molly Baz will publish some new recipe, and you’ll have to make it immediately.”
Well, sort of. It was actually Tuesday and it was an older recipe from Cook This Book, not The Club — Molly only releases new Club recipes on Fridays. C’mon, babe. Anywho, I made Molly’s Slow-Roasted Cod Tostadas with Juicy Cucumber Salad, and it was — as one might expect — absolutely perfect.
A note for the parents: all three of my children ate this, which is a big deal because officially only one of the three actually likes fish.
But, on Monday I did make Ali Slagle’s One-Pot Broccoli Mac and Cheese. There is no other way to say this, so I will simply say that this is the recipe you make when you’re so tired and overwhelmed that you’re ready to cry your eyes out; but you still really want your kids to get some greens in them even if they are smothered in various forms of dairy; and hoping and praying to God that dinner will not take 500 years to make nor leave you with 78 dishes. This is the recipe you need for all those very specific occasions.
Technique of the Moment: Pasta Salad
If you’re thinking that pasta salad doesn’t really sound like a technique, I hear your point. Officially, it’s not. Generally, when I think of pasta salad, my feelings are mostly indifferent. I think fondly of all the things I associate with pasta salad — summer birthday parties at public parks under concrete ramadas, igloo ice chests full of Sprite, plasticky table cloths taped haphazardly to heavy concrete tables, hamburgers, and a nice, temperate 105-degree Arizona day. But, my feelings on pasta salad itself elicit little-to-no emotion.
At the end of the day, I think that pasta salad recipes populating summer grilling parties in the late 1990s and early 2000s were just not that impressive. Way too much pasta. Way too little “salad” and not enough acidity.
These days I have strong emotions about pasta salad, and they are all positive. It’s the perfect summer, picnic food. Not only is it ideally made ahead of time and stored in the fridge until you’re ready to make your way outside. What’s more, it’s actually best eaten at room temperature, not cold; meaning the time it takes you to get the pasta salad out of the refrigerator, make your way to the park, get the blanket all set up, etc is actually desirable. You want that extra time, so the pasta salad can“warm up” a bit and come to room temperature. Samin Nosrat mentions in her book, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, that the flavors in foods become more pronounced when they are closer to room temp rather than too cold or too hot.
This reminds me, pasta salads whose dressing contains mayo or some sort of cream base do not “travel well.” I only recommend making pasta salads ahead of time, letting them marinate, and taking them out to the park when a key component of the dressing is some form of acid: vinegar, lemon juice, etc.
I’m going to share four recipes below and you can make them as-is without giving too much thought to technique. But, if you really want to focus on developing and honing your skills as an at-home chef, which is the stated goal of Can’t Help But Cook, pasta salad is an excellent vehicle through which to develop and explore two skills:
seasoning (i.e. taste and adjust)
the role that heat plays in developing flavor
In her cookbook Start Here, Sohla El-Waylly uses a cucumber salad to educate her readers on the importance of seasoning food. A well-seasoned dish is nothing more than a well-balanced dish. And, a well-balanced dish needs to happily marry salt, acid, fat, and sweetness. Even if we follow a recipe, we need to be able to taste and adjust the seasonings as we go — especially at the end. Pasta salads are similar to cucumber salads, meaning they are great opportunities to practice tasting and adjusting.
So, for each of the recipes that follow, I encourage you to take a small bite after you’ve compiled all the ingredients. Then, ask yourself what it needs more of.
Does it need some pizzazz? You may need more acid or salt
Does it taste too salty or acidic? You may need more fat
Sweetness is an important component of a well-balanced pasta salad but that doesn’t — and probably shouldn’t — mean adding sugar. Sweetness can be mint, dried fruit, or sweet peppers. To name a few.
Every recipe I share has ingredients from each of these categories. The best way to practice tasting and adjusting is to place a small amount of the pasta salad in a bowl. If you think it needs more acid (e.g. vinegar, lemon juice) add a small amount and mix. Does it taste better? If so, add more acid to the larger bowl. Still not tasting exactly as you want? Try salt or fat. Continue experimenting with small portions until you arrive at your ideal dish.
Four Pasta Salad Recipes For All Your Summer Needs
Alison Roman’s Pasta Salad with Zucchini, Sizzled Scallion and Parmesan
It’s not a looker. I’m well aware. But, what it lacks in appearance, it more than makes up for in taste.
I mean no disrespect to the Molly Baz pasta salad I link to below, but this Alison Roman one is hands down my favorite of the four. The toasted walnuts, the chunks of parmesan cheese, the sauteed zucchini. My! Oh! MY! My kind of carb salad. I made this pasta salad for the first time way back in March (I actually made it intending to take it outside but then it started raining. It’s possible I didn’t look at the radar).
Anyway, it was the first time I had heard a chef explicitly say to use less pasta in order to create an equilibrium between the pasta and everything else. Mind you, Ina Garten has been saying this for years. I just missed the memo.
Molly Baz’s Jammy Pepper Pasta Salad
This is an old Molly Baz recipe, back when she worked at Bon Appétit. I liked it a lot, but it’s not Molly at her best. Molly also calls for 1lb of pasta, but following Ina Garten’s advice, I only used 8oz. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of sugar in my main courses, so I probably won’t make this one too often — or rather, I’ll make it without the sugar. But, if you’re like me and you can’t say no to jammy peppers, it’s worth it!
I would also like to point out that she mentions in the blurb before the recipe that you can omit the chiles if you want to avoid spice, which is what I did. All this being said, everyone ate it, and we had a grand old time.
Melissa Clark’s Lemony Farro Pasta Salad with Goat Cheese and Mint
Melissa Clark is a popular recipe developer for NYT Cooking and the author of many, many cookbooks. I feel like I need to spend a little more time with her recipes before I form a full-fledged opinion of her cooking style and flavor profile, but I liked this pasta salad a lot. It’s different. Different in the way that you will probably like but your kids won’t (speaking from experience). I’m a huge fan of farro, goat cheese, mint, and dried apricots, so this salad really spoke my language.
Because the two forms of grain — farro and orzo — are smaller, and also because there is so much spinach in this salad, I went ahead and followed her instructions to use a pound of each. I know this goes against what I said above. But, sometimes rules need to be broken. That is the beauty of a pasta salad. You can edit the ingredients to your liking. It’s not a mac and cheese béchamel. You can’t really mess up the chemistry (literally) of the dish.
Ali Slagle’s Double-Tomato Pasta Salad
This one was good, but probably my least favorite, if I’m being honest. Many mainstream recipe developers crap-talk sun-dried tomatoes. Part of me wants to tag along with the cool kids and say, “Yeah, they suck.” But, part of me also likes them. I have mixed feelings on the subject. I really like the flavors of this one, but I think it was my least favorite overall because the flavors are really rich. I was less inclined to go for a second helping, even though I was more than hungry enough. I definitely recommend a healthy serving of basil and mint (for sweetness). It really does help to balance everything out.
There are a plethora of pasta salad recipes out there just waiting to be consumed on a hot, sunny day. If you decide to make one of these, great! Let me know how it goes. But more than just getting you to make the four above, my larger goal is to get you comfortable becoming the creative in your own kitchen. Pasta salads are a great vehicle to develop your tastebuds. Taste, evaluate, and adjust if necessary.
One Non-Food-Related Thought
If it’s not already obvious from the many picnic blankets we own, I absolutely love Central Park. I love getting outside with my kids, not only for them but also for me. It’s funny because there are some days when the idea of getting out the door feels so overwhelming that all I want to do is stay in and put on a movie. But more often than not, I feel like I am the first person to chill out the second we walk into the park. It does me a world of good.
If you ever visit NYC, I would encourage you to venture northward into the depths of the park. Aim for a place in the park that lines up with 77th st, better yet go further north. There are really tall trees and in certain areas not a single skyscraper to be seen.
I hope you all have a happy, gelato-filled summer! I’ll be back in your inboxes in one month and by that time it will be so hot that we won’t want to turn on the oven. I’ll have all the recipes we need.
See you in the kitchen!
Xo,
Rach
that cucumber salad looks so FRESH and summery, love it!
Also Lucy hasn't touched a vegetable in about a month so that mac and cheese/broc situation may need to be turned to soon :)
And love your tips on how to sweeten without sugar 😜