Mediterranean Pasta Salad for Eight

In Idyllwild, when I learned friends were coming up from the desert, I offered to make supper. Because I had brought most of the ingredients from town, I decided on a pasta salad. Not having any cookbooks with me, I went online and read about pasta salads. Picked up some pointers…sweet peppers are more flavorful roasted than raw (I hadn’t done that in my last salad, but I think it’s a worthy idea). Lemon juice in the dressing is preferable in lightness for both flavor and color to a dark vinegar like balsamic. Creamy feta is preferable to crumbly Parmesan. Chopped raw red onions and green scallions add point. More delicate-flavored herbs like Italian parsley, sweet basil, and cilantro are preferable to aromatic rosemary and sage. And so on. But don’t forget that rules are made to be broken…
Having just put together the seafood pasta salad (August 26th entry), I composed the following. Oh. I happened to have a tub (9 ounces) of Trader Joe’s Artichoke Lemon Pesto in the fridge and I used it as the base for the salad dressing. It made a yummy dressing, but truth to tell, I couldn’t taste artichoke in the salad—it just was there, adding its warm notes. A simple olive oil and fresh lemon juice dressing would be excellent. I mixed and served the salad in/from the broiling pan of the cabin’s oven…we ate by the roaring creek (there was a thundershower that afternoon). It was a splendid evening and my salad was a success.
NB: Should you be serving very hearty eaters, you could mix in chunks of oil-packed tuna or cooked chicken or good salami.
Moisten about 1 tablespoon dried sweet basil leaves in a saucer with a little olive oil, stir, and let the leaves reconstitute—this can be done any time.
Add 1 to 2 tablespoons sea or kosher salt to 4 to 5 quarts water in a big pot and bring to a boil. When the water boils, add 1 pound strozzapreti pasta (priest choker—longish rolled pieces, or fusilli or any pieces that hold up well), and stir occasionally for two minutes. When al dente, lift out (reserve the water), drain and shake well, turn into a big bowl, drizzle with about ¼ cup olive oil, add the basil, and stir gently with a wooden spoon to moisten every piece. You can cover and set this aside now for hours, but every hour or so stir with your hands so pieces don’t stick together.
To the hot pasta water, drop in the contents of a 10-ounce bag of frozen organic baby peas, stir, and drain—all the cooking they need. Lay on a paper towel in a dish, cover, and keep in a cool place.
A few hours in advance, brush your oven’s broiler tray with olive oil. On it arrange 6 to 8 Roma tomatoes quartered lengthwise. Core and seed 1 red and 1 green sweet pepper, cut into strips a scant ½-inch wide, then cut strips in half (slice on the diagonal, for handsome’s sake). Put 3 large garlic cloves through a press or mince finely (about 1 tablespoon) and daub smidges over the pieces. Sprinkle lightly with sea or kosher salt, a few turns of the pepper mill, drizzle with olive oil, and roast at 350 degrees (the oven needn’t be preheated) until tender-crisp, less than an hour. Cool (set in the fridge if there’s room).
At any point, over the cooled tomatoes and peppers, distribute 5 scallions thinly sliced, white and green parts both…½ large red onion, finely chopped …1 cup pitted kalamata olives…3 to 4 ounces (about ¾ cup) toasted (shake in a dry heavy skillet till lightly browned) pine nuts. Cover to keep moist.
An hour or two before serving, strew over 4 ounces feta cheese cut in small cubes…the peas…the leaves of a most of a bunch of Italian parsley snipped with scissors or chopped…and the pasta. Prepare ¾ cup salad dressing made with pesto as a base or simply ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon hearty olive oil and 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, plus a little salt—bear in mind the salty feta and olives. Pour over evenly and stir with your hands, gently blending blending blending. Cover and keep at room temperature until serving, at which point, blend one last time. Garnish with the rest of the bunch of parsley.