Super good and easy Pasta Salad

Ingredients for Pasta Salad:

  • 310g small shell-shaped pasta
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 255g yellow cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
  •  255g red cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
  • 1 handful of black olives, pitted, chopped roughly
  • 2 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped
  • 1 handful of fresh basil, chopped, or if you’re particular ‘torn’
  • 1 handful continental parsley, chopped
  • ½ a cucumber, chopped

Method:

Chop up your tomatoes and cucumber and herbs, it looks nice if you keep them smaller than your pasta shells!! Bring pot of salted water to the boil.
Add pasta and cloves of garlic, cook to al dente, you don’t want mushy pasta salad.
Drain, rinse in cold water, remove and keep garlic – it’s for the dressing.
Put the pasta into a bowl, don’t over drain it.
Add the tomatoes, olives, chives, basil and cucumber to the bowl.

Dressing:

  • garlic that you cooked with your pasta
  • 4 tablespoons white wine vinegar, or to taste
  • 7 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Squash the garlic cloves out of their skins and crush.  Add the vinegar, oil and seasoning, combine well and combine (well) with garlic.
Pour over salad, add salt and pepper to taste and add chopped parsley…. and feel free to make it your own –  add or substitute any of your favorite herbs to this pasta salad too.

Amber | www.intothesoul.com