Basic pasta salad

If you can boil water you can make a quick and juicy pasta salad with really basic ingredients. All you want is pasta, veggies, dressing and any other ingredients you will have handy. The very first thing to do before you start cooking any noodles is to look thru your kitchen and decide which ingredients will be added to the salad. Here are some concepts : 1-Vegetables : You can put virtually any plant in a pasta salad. Are good examples. If you wish to have your veg cooked instead of raw you can throw them in the pot with your pasta. The tomatoes and cucumber should be raw and added after the pasta is cooked and cooled.

2-Meat and Seafood : Deli-styled beef makes a welcome boost to a pasta salad. Meat, chicken, ham and pepperoni are good examples. It's not relevant if it is cubed or thinly chopped, it'll mix into the salad nicely. Chicken, meat and pork are the three main ones. Seafood is another favored ingredient, freshly cooked or canned. Freshly cooked seafood is beginning to become reasonably popular when making salads today, simply make sure it's been correctly cared for and cooked. Smoked salmon is totally full of flavor and my fave seafood to add to a salad. Though beef and / or seafood can reinforce your pasta salad, they aren't needed so if you would wish to omit them you can still make a completely fine salad without them. 3-Cheese : Several pasta salads have parmesan cheese added to them but any cheese will add flavor. You may use any cheese in any form like scraped, cut or cubed. An alternative choice is to employ a cheesy dressing like three Cheese Ranch when dressing the salad. 4-Garlic and Olives : For you garlic lovers out there a clove or 2 of garlic will add a hint of a bite to your salad. Any sort of cut olive will mix well in this salad.

5-Spices : Add spices sparingly, use any of your favourites. Some well-liked ones are : Oregano, basil, thyme, curry, salt & pepper.

6-Dressing : For dressing you can go with creamy or an oil & vinegar mix. Any bottled dressing will work or you can make your own. For creamy dressing use about a cup of mayo or yogurt with quarter cup of either vinegar, wine, lemon or lime juice.

For an oil / vinegar dressing just substitute the mayo or yogurt for approximately [*FR3] cup salad oil. Now you have decided on your ingredients it's time to boil your pasta. Follow the directions on the package and cook till El Dente. To paraphrase cook pasta till tender but firm ( customarily about 8-10 mins ). Drain pasta in a colander, wash with cold water and put aside. Once pasta has cooled off add all other ingredients you have decided on except dressing and mix. Add dressing sparingly till salad is totally coated. You will have leftover dressing if you made your own.